Moroccan Arabic Lesson: Negation

Grammar Review: Negation

In Moroccan Arabic, words are negated by the particle mashi - ماشي - which is used by itself sometimes but mostly is used as a contraction as we see in mataybqash - ماتيبقاش. 

When mashi is used by itself, it typically precedes what it negates:

ماشي أنا للي كليت الخبز    

mashi ana lli klit lkhobz 

It wasn't me who ate the bread.

When used as a contraction, mashi is broken up into ma - ما - and sh - ش . ma is added to the beginning of the word and sh is added to the end. Sometimes this can lead to very strange sounding phrases:

فيّا جوع والله ماتغدّيتش اليوما
fiyya ju3... wallahi mataghadditsh lyoma  

I'm hungry... I swear, I didn't have lunch today!

In the case of a double negative, the sh is dropped:

مسكين ماعندو حتى ريال
meskin ma3ndo 7ta riyal 

Poor guy, he doesn't even have a riyal (old Moroccan currency with little value).

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