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Understanding the functions of ما in Arabic grammar
The Arabic word ma ما has several meanings. Here is a list of the ten most common applications of ما in Arabic: negation, relative clause, etc.
The ما is one of the most powerful devices in Arabic. The main issue is to know and identify whether the ma is an ism (اسم) or harf (حرف).
Let’s see why.
In my opinion, the letter ل and the ما are the key to understanding Arabic properly. It is essential to understand the various meanings of ما.
ما is a genuine jack-of-all-trades. By throwing this tiny word into a sentence, you can change the meaning dramatically.
Here is a list of some possibilities:
Ma used to negate sentences
| negation particle | حَرْف | ما النَّافِية |
Normally, ما is used to negate a past tense verb (الْماضِي). Theoretically, however, it is also possible to negate a جُمْلة اِسْمِيّة with ما.
You could even negate the present tense (الْمُضارِع) with ما. This is very rare and occasionally used with the expression: ما يَزالُ (still)
| The students did not show up yesterday. | ما حَضَرَ الطُّلّابُ أَمْسِ |
Ma used to ask questions
| Interrogative pronoun | اِسْم | ما الْاِسْتِفْهامِيّة |
| What is your name? | ما اسْمُكَ؟ |
| What are you thinking about? | فِيمَ تُفَكِّرُ؟ |
Ma for relative clauses
| Definite conjunctive pronoun | اِسْم | ما الْمَوْصُولة |
| I do understand what you say. | إِنَّني أَفْهَمُ ما تَقُولُهُ |
| Read what I wrote. | إِقْرَأْ ما كَتَبْتُهُ |
Ma for conditional clauses
| Conditional clause | اِسْم | ما الشَّرْطِيّة |
Notice the سُكُون at the end of the verb (مَجْزُوم) – it is a شَرْط.
| Whatever good that you do comes back to you. | ما تَفْعَلْ مِنْ خَيْرٍ تَجِدْ جاءَهُ |
Ma to strengthen the meaning
| Used to strengthen the conditional meaning | حَرْف | ما لِتَأْكِيدِ مَعْنَى الشَّرْط |
| If you had worked hard, you would have succeeded. (Notice that it is not a negation!) | إِذا ما عَمِلْتَ بِجِدٍّ نَجَحْتَ |
Ma to produce a masdar
| Used to introduce a clause equivalent to a مَصْدَر | حَرْف | ما الْمَصْدَرِيّة |
It is used like the particle أَنْ and has the same meaning and implications.
| The student came after the lesson had started. | حَضَرَ الطُّلّابُ بَعْدَ ما بَدَأَ الدَّرْسُ |
Ma to introduce adverbs of time
| Used to introduce a clause equivalent to a مَصْدَر in the adverb of time. | حَرْف | ما الْمَصْدَرِيّة الظَّرْفِيّة |
| I will think of you as long as I live. | سَأَظَلُّ أَتَذَكَّرُكَ ما حَيِيْتُ |
Ma to express vagueness
| This ما denotes generality and vagueness | اِسْم | ما الْإِبْهامِيّة |
Notice: In this application ما has to be at the end of the sentence.
| The man who sat next to me in the plane was reading (a kind of) a book. | كانَ الرَّجُلُ الَّذِي جانِبِي فِي الطَّائرَةِ يَقْرَأُ كِتابًا ما |
| some day; sometime in the future | يَوْمًا ما |
| I lost something. | أَضَعْتُ شَيْئًا ما |
Ma used to neutralize grammatical effects
| The hindering ما | حَرْف | ما الْكافّة |
This ma is a neutralizer and gets rid of all grammatical implications that otherwise may occur (for example, if you have إِنَّ). With the ma, إِنَّ does lose its governing power – so you won’t have the typical mixed up case endings with إِنَّ anymore.
| In life hope doesn’t go away. | إِنَّما الْحَياةُ أَمَلٌ لايَنْتَهي |
Ma used to express surprise
| ما – as expressive of surprise | اِسْم | ما التَّعَجُّبِيّة |
| What a nice spring! | ما أَجْمَلَ الرَّبِيعَ |
| What fortunate I got here! | ما أَسْعَدَنِي بِوُجُودي هُنا |
Never stop exploring grammar…
- What does dunya mean?
- What is the difference between ما and لَمْ in Arabic?
- Arabic letters without dots: Can you read Arabic skeleton script?
- الصَّلاةُ خَيْرٌ مِن الْنَّوْمِ: Why is the prayer better than sleep?
- What is a مصدر مؤول in Arabic?
Thank You for creating this website. This page, in particular, is of great help for new students of Arabic language like myself !! Appreciate it very much.
Dear Gerald, may I ask you to clarify why in the example below it should be ‘كِتابٍ’ instead of ‘كتاباً’?:
كانَ الرَّجُلُ الَّذِي جانِبِي فِي الطَّائرَةِ يَقْرَأُ كِتابٍ ما
Thank you.
Hi Aleks, that was a typo! I have corrected it – many thanks!
In which category does „bi maa“ (because) belong?
I have always wondered about the different meanings of ‚Ma‘. Thank you!
Question, do you think that when translated into English most types of Maa lose their functions? or be replaced by another one? like for example conditional maa when translated is not about condition at all.
like the example you used for application 4 can it be translated into if instead of what ?
If you did good it will come back to you.
translation is an art, in my opinion, so you need to convey the intended meaning. (In order to do so, it usually helps a lot to think about the literal and structural meaning.) Thus, it always depends on the context. I guess you have quite some flexibility to translate “ma”, just check if it fits to the overall situation. For example, the additional/extra maa is very tricky and is often simply left untranslated. Regarding maa as a conditional particle, you need to check whether the condition is real or unreal – you may need a different particle then depending on the meaning. Sorry that I can’t be very concrete as there are no general rules, I guess
If I’m not mistaken, the first two examples for Application 8 should be deleted as these two examples are actually for Application 10.
Regards,
Thank you so much!!! I appreciate it. It was a typical copy/paste error (unfortunately…). You were totally right, they were double! I have deleted it. All examples should be at the appropriate position now.