Levantine Arabic/Negation

Yes and no

	Default meaning	Reply to a negative question
أيوه 'aywa إيه 'ē (N) / آه 'ā (S) نعم naʕam (formal)	yes	no (agreement)
لأ la'	no	yes (contradiction)
مبلا mbala	-

Negation of verbs

Verbs are negated with the particle ما (ma) preceding the verb and the optional suffix ـش‎ (-š).

	Examples	Commonly used in	Notes
mā + verb	ما كتب ma katab (“he didn't write”) ما بعرف ma baʕref (“I don't know”)	the whole Levant	- the particle ma is stressed
ma + verb + -š	ما كتبش ma katab-š ما بعرفش ma baʕref-š	Jordan, Palestine	- ma is unstressed, the stress of the verb is shifting - same form as in Egyptian Arabic
verb + -š	بعرفش baʕref-š	Palestine	- ma is unstressed, the stress of the verb is shifting - only used with non-past forms (present, subjunctive)

Imperative

In order to negate the imperative, the subjunctive form is used.

	Verb form	Example
Positive	Imperative	نسى nsā (North) إنسى 'insa (South)
Negated	Subjunctive	ما تنسى ma tinsa ما تنساش ma tinsā-š / تنساش tinsā-š لا تنسى la tinsa (formal)

Pseudo verbs

Pseudo verbs like بدّ (bidd-, “want”) and عند (ʕind-, “to have”) are negated with the partile ما (ma) as well, but usally without the suffix ـش‎ (-š).

Example
ما بدّي يّاه ma biddi yyā (“I don't want it”)

Negation of nouns, adjectives etc.

Nouns, adjectives, adverbs and partiples are negated with the preceding particle مش (miš, in the South sometimes pronounced “muš”) or مو (mu, only in Syria).

As modal verbs like لازم (lāzem, “must”) and ممكن (mumken, “may”) are technically adverbs, they are negated the same way as well.

While particles preceding verbs like عم (ʕam, progressive marker) and رح (raḥ, future marker) are usually negated like verbs (see above), they can be negated with مش (miš/muš) as well.