Breakdown of ما كذبت على الشرطة.
الal
the
على'ala
on / of (evidence of) / to (lie to someone) / for (difficult for someone)
ماmâ
not (negating a past verb or a sentence)
كذبkadhaba
Questions & Answers about ما كذبت على الشرطة.
Why do we use ما instead of لا for 'not' here?
In Arabic, لا is mostly used to negate present tense verbs (like 'I do not lie'). Because we are talking about a past event ('I did not lie'), we use the particle ما directly in front of the past tense verb كذبت.
Where is the word for 'I' (أنا) in this sentence?
The 'I' is built into the verb itself! The suffix (ending) ـت on the verb كذبت tells us it was 'I' who did the action. You could add أنا at the very beginning of the sentence for emphasis, but it is usually dropped.
The word على usually means 'on'. Why is it translated as 'to' here?
Verbs in Arabic often pair with specific prepositions that don't always translate word-for-word into English. When you want to say 'lie to someone' in Arabic, you use the preposition على, so you are literally saying 'lie on someone'.
How do I pronounce the 'the' (الـ) attached to الشرطة (the police)?
The letter ش is a 'Sun letter'. This means the 'l' sound in the prefix الـ is skipped, and you double the 'sh' sound instead. It is pronounced 'ash-shurṭah' rather than 'al-shurṭah'.