Arabic: An Essential Grammar

َع َد ُم ْل ُو ُجو ِد^



adamu l-wug ̆u ̄di, non-existence

َع َد ُم ْلـ ِخ ْب َر ِة^



adamu l-h

̆

ibrati, inexperience, lack of experience, ignorance

َع َد ُم ْ َلأ ْخ َلا ِق^



adamu l-

ah

̆

la ̄qi, immorality, lack of manners, bad manners

َع ِدي ُم ْلـ َح َيا ِة^



adı-mu l-h

̇

aya ̄ti, lifeless, dead

َع َد ُم ُح ُضو ِر َأ َح ٍد^



adamu h

̇

ud

̇

u ̄ri

ah

̇

adin, without anyone being present

24.6 Negation of nominal sentences with (^) َلا la ̄
The negative particles َلا ‘no, not’ and َو َلا ‘neither, nor’ have already
been discussed as negative particles for the verb of the imperfect tense.
The negative particle َلا can also be placed before a noun that functions
as the subject of a nominal sentence. The noun must be in the accusative
case without article or nunation. The negative particle functions then
as an existential or locative negative copula: ‘There is no X’ OR ‘X is not
(there)’, e.g.
َلا َأ َح َد ِفي ْل َب ْي ِت la ̄^


ah
̇
ada fı

• l-bayti. (There is) no one (nobody) at home.

َلا َس َلا َم َو َلا َح ْر َب la ̄ sala ̄ma wa-la ̄ h

̇

arba. (There is) neither peace nor war.

24.7 لٌُّكـ kullun

The noun لٌّ ُكـ kullun means basically ‘totality, entirety, whole, all,

everything’. It is fully declined (inflected for all cases) and can be

employed as a universal indefinite pronoun modifying a following noun,

or standing alone. The following are its uses:

(a) When لٌّ ُك without an article or nunation is followed by an

indefinite noun in the genitive singular, it means ‘each, every’, e.g.

ل َطـاِل ٍبُّ ُكـ kullu t

̇

a ̄libin, each student

ل َي ْو ٍمُُّكـ kullu yawmin, every day

(b) When لٌّ ُك without an article or nunation is followed by a definite

noun in the genitive singular, it means ‘all, the whole’, e.g.

174

Interroga-

tive

particles

and

pronouns,

vocative

particles