PolyLingo
🇸🇦 Arabic
العربيةArabic

Pattern: “I don’t understand” (negation in real life)

A survival phrase — and your first reliable negative sentence.

The pattern

Memorize this as a chunk. Then swap one word at a time.

  • Say the positive and negative back‑to‑back (understand ↔ don’t understand).
  • Keep the negation placement exactly like native sentences.
لا أفهم.
la afham
I don't understand.

More examples

These are close patterns you can reuse. Read them aloud, then change one word.

لا أعرف.
la a'rif
I don't know.
أنا هنا.
ana huna
I am here.
أريد ماء.
urid ma'
I want water.
هل تتكلم الإنجليزية؟
hal tatakallam al-ingliziyya
Do you speak English?
أين الحمام؟
ayna al-hammam
Where is the bathroom?
هذا صديقي.
hatha sadiqi
This is my friend.

Drills

Build the pattern
la afham
I don't understand.
Your sentence
Click tokens below to build the sentence.
Tokens

Mini‑quiz

Mini-quiz
1/8 • Score: 0
Which sentence matches “I don't understand.”?