Breakdown of ليست عندي فكرة جديدة.
جديدjadeed
new
يi
my / me (after a preposition)
عند'inda
at / to have
ليسlaysa
to not be
Questions & Answers about ليست عندي فكرة جديدة.
Why do we use ليست instead of ليس here?
The word ليس means "is not", and it changes to match the gender of the noun it talks about. Since the thing you don't have is an idea, فكرة, which is a feminine word (ending in the "taa marbuta" ـة), you must use the feminine form ليست.
Wait, shouldn't the verb match the person speaking? Why isn't it the "I" form?
This is a very common mix-up! When negating possession with عند, you aren't saying "I am not". You are literally saying "A new idea is not with me." The verb matching happens with the thing being owned (the feminine فكرة), not the person who owns it.
How exactly is "I don't have" formed in this sentence?
To say "I have", you use عندي, which literally means "with me". To make it negative, you simply put the correct form of ليس before it. So, ليست عندي means "there is not with me" or "I do not have".
Why does the word جديدة come at the very end?
In Arabic, adjectives always come directly after the noun they describe. So "a new idea" is written as فكرة جديدة (an idea new). Notice how both words end in the feminine marker ـة because the adjective must match the noun's gender.