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Is there difference of meaning between two word below ?

  1. لم تكتب (lam taktub)

  2. ما كتبت (maa katabat)

IMO the meaning is same : "She didn't write".

Is the meaning correct ?

Maybe there is anyone can explain different use of لم and ما.

ryanw
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  • There is a proposal to create an Arabic language stackexchange here: https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/105382/arabic-language – Sir Cornflakes Jul 06 '17 at 11:46
  • @jknappen. We tried it before but it was discontinued because of the poor quality of the contributions. On this site there are at least a few people who know what they are talking about. – fdb Jul 06 '17 at 12:25
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    This is no excuse for posting the questions here. They are plain off-topic. Try to get a better site (using better defining questions and community building) this time. – Sir Cornflakes Jul 06 '17 at 12:48
  • I agree with jknappen. – James Grossmann Jul 08 '17 at 02:10

2 Answers2

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In Classical Arabic lam + apocopate and mā + perfect are used interchangeably to express the negative of a past action. There does not seem to be any difference in meaning. In modern Arabic dialects only the latter survives. Consequently people who are trying to write “Modern Standard” Arabic tent to avoid the construction with mā in the mistaken assumption that it is non-classical.

fdb
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I would translate the sentences like so:

  1. لم تكتب (lam taktub) = She didn't write

  2. ما كتبت (maa katabat) = she never wrote

So لم means did not, whereas ما means never.

Interestingly both Arabic and English syntactically use the present form of the verb in (1):

تكتب = write or (she) writes

And both use the past form of the verb in (2):

كتبت = wrote or (she) wrote

As fdb also points out, to my knowledge only (2) survives in modern usage, except when using classical Arabic, for example in a formal setting.

WaelJ
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