مَجَرّة
root: ج-ر-ر / noun / plural: مَجَرّات / definition: galaxy
Four 5.5-hour flights in a matter of weeks seem to have taken their toll on my body, but my mind is alive with the memories of a night under the Milky Way on Wadi Rum’s dunes, a sunset from the mountaintop in Wadi Musa, and the fragrant cardamom and cinnamon teas that washed down eventful days.
And if my trip wasn’t already sweet enough, I also got my first taste of knafeh whilst I was there. Yum!
I’ll pull my mind away from my halcyon days and nights in Jordan for a minute so we can focus on the subject of this week’s post: ما لَم.
It only takes a glance into the Hans Wehr to know that ما has many meanings. It can be an interrogative, a negation, a relative pronoun, a conjunction, etc…
And لم, as we know, is a negation for the past tense (and is followed by المضارع المجزوم).
But when we combine these two in the phrase ما لم, it may give rise to a different meaning.
ما لم can mean “unless“:
لا حَلَّ ما لَم نُنَفِّذ التّغييرات
there’s no solution unless we implement changes
(note that in this example, we see an example of the absolute negation at the start!)
It can also be translated as “as long as… not“:
سَأُسافِر ما لَم تَمنَعني
I’ll travel as long as she doesn’t prevent me
Have you come across any other instances of ما لم being used?
!مع السلامة
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Is there a difference if this is translated
as
I’ll travel unless she prevents me
I’ll travel unless she doesn’t prevent me
Does the inclusion of ‘does not ‘ in the SECOND sentence change meaning, if yes how
OR the above two sentences have the same meaning as your translation of
I’ll travel as long as she doesn’t prevent me
Your second sentence means the equivalent of “I’ll travel if she prevents me, and I’ll stay if she doesn’t”, so the two sentences in English are not the same. But it’s definitely a confusing structure to use in English! Even “I won’t travel unless she prevents me” sounds better.