Topic 31 of 62

نفي الماضي— Negation of the Past

The past tense can be negated two ways. The simple form is ما + فعل ماضٍ (ما كتبَ = "he did not write"), with the verb unchanged. The other is لم + فعل مضارع مجزوم (لم يكتبْ) — critically, لم requires the PRESENT-tense verb in the jussive (مجزوم) form, not theماضي verb itself.