Breakdown of أريد حلوى، لكن ليس عندي مال.
يi
my / me (after a preposition)
عند'inda
at / to have
مالmâl
money
أرادarâda
to want
ليسlaysa
to not be
لكنlâkin
but
حلوىhalwâ
dessert
Questions & Answers about أريد حلوى، لكن ليس عندي مال.
Is لكن (but) attached to the following word like the conjunction و (and) is?
No. While you have seen that و (and) attaches directly to the beginning of the next word without a space, لكن stands alone as its own independent word. It works very much like 'but' in English, joining two statements together.
Why do we use ليس to say 'do not' here? Couldn't I just use لا?
We use ليس because the phrase عندي مال (literally 'with me is money') is a sentence without a standard action verb. The word لا is usually used to negate present-tense action verbs (you could say لا أريد for 'I do not want'). Because expressing 'having' in Arabic does not use an action verb, we use ليس to negate it.
How does عندي exactly translate to 'I have'?
Arabic does not have a direct verb for 'to have'. Instead, it uses a word like عند (meaning 'with' or 'at') and attaches a pronoun ending. Here, we add the 'my' suffix (the letter ya, ي), making عندي. Literally, the second clause is saying 'but not with me is money.'
Why is the word order ليس عندي مال instead of putting the money (مال) right after 'not' (ليس)?
When you state that you have (or do not have) something indefinite like 'money' (rather than 'the money'), the Arabic rule is to put the 'have' phrase (عندي) before the thing you possess (مال). The natural pattern here is: negation (ليس) + possessive phrase (عندي) + indefinite thing (مال).
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