אין לי ספק לגבי התוצאה.

I have no doubt about the result.

Breakdown of אין לי ספק לגבי התוצאה.

• אין: there is no
• לי: to me
• תוצאה: result
• לגבי: regarding; about

Questions & Answers about אין לי ספק לגבי התוצאה.

What does אין mean here, and why is it used instead of לא?

אין is the word used to express non-existence / absence in the present tense, often equivalent to there is no / I don’t have.

So:

אין לי ספק = I have no doubt
Literally: There is no doubt to me

By contrast, לא is the regular word for not, used to negate verbs and other statements, for example:

אני לא יודע = I don’t know

So in this sentence, אין is correct because Hebrew is expressing that no doubt exists for the speaker.

Why does Hebrew say לי instead of using אני for I?

Because Hebrew often expresses having with a structure like there is / there isn’t + to someone.

So:

• יש לי = I have
• אין לי = I don’t have

Here, לי literally means to me.

So:

אין לי ספק
Literally: There is no doubt to me
Natural English: I have no doubt

This is a very common Hebrew pattern, and it is one of the first big differences from English.

What exactly does ספק mean?