Breakdown of هذا غير صحيح.
هذاhâdhâ
this (m)
صحيحsaheeh
correct / true
غيرghayr
not, un- (before an adjective); other than
Questions & Answers about هذا غير صحيح.
Why do we use غير here instead of لا or ليس for "not"?
Beginners often want to use لا (la) or ليس (laysa) for everything. While ليس works here, لا is mostly used before verbs. غير (ghayr) is specifically used right before an adjective to make it negative, acting like the English prefixes "un-", "in-", or "non-". So, غير صحيح literally translates to something closer to "incorrect" or "untrue".
Could I use ليس (laysa) to mean the same thing?
Yes! You can absolutely say هذا ليس صحيحاً (hatha laysa sahihan). Both sentences are commonly used. Using غير is just a neat, concise shortcut to turn a positive adjective into a negative one without dealing with the extra grammar rules that ليس requires.
I learned that غير forms a possessive phrase (an idafa). How does that affect the word صحيح?
Good catch! Because غير literally translates as a noun meaning "other than", Arabic grammar treats the words as a possessive phrase. This puts صحيح in the genitive case. If you were reading this aloud with full grammatical vowels at the ends of the words, you would pronounce it with an "in" sound at the end: غيرُ صحيحٍ (ghayru sahihin).
Why isn't there a word for "is" in this sentence?
In Arabic, simple equational sentences (sentences that say "A is B") don't use a present tense "to be" verb. You simply put the subject (هذا) and the information about it (غير صحيح) side by side to mean "This is not true".
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