لا، ما بدي قهوة اليوم.

coffee

Breakdown of لا، ما بدي قهوة اليوم.

• بده: to want
• اليوم: today
• ما: not

Questions & Answers about لا، ما بدي قهوة اليوم.

What does بدي mean exactly?

بدي means I want in Levantine Arabic.

It is one of the most common colloquial ways to express wanting. You will often see these related forms too:

• بدي = I want
• بدك = you want
• بده = he wants
• بدها = she wants
• بدنا = we want

So in ما بدي قهوة اليوم, the core idea is simply I don’t want coffee today.

Why are both لا and ما used here?

They do two different jobs:

• لا = No as a standalone reply
• ما = negates the sentence that follows

So:

• لا = No.
• ما بدي قهوة اليوم = I don’t want coffee today.

Together, لا، ما بدي قهوة اليوم means:

No, I don’t want coffee today.

This is very natural if someone has just offered you coffee or asked whether you want some.

Why is it ما بدي and not لا بدي?