Arabic vocabulary
How to say “refuse” in Arabic, with pronunciation and real example sentences from OpenArabic texts.
دعِي إِلَى الْإِسْلَام فَمَا تلعثم وَلَا أَبى
He was called to Islam and he did not hesitate nor refuse.
أَبَى — refuse. A past-tense verb 'refused / balked', subject 'he' inside, weak final root — 'nor did he refuse'. He neither faltered nor declined.
From: Abu Bakr: First Champion of Islam →فَتَعَرَّضَتْ لَهُ اِمْرَأَةٌ وَكََلَّمَتْهُ فَأَبَى،
Then a woman approached him and spoke to him, then he refused.
فَأَبَى — then he refused. The fa- delivers the result that follows her speaking -- 'so he refused'. It frames this as the immediate upshot of the previous action rather than just the next item in a list, and the verb carries its own 'he' subject.
From: Those Who Spoke in the Cradle →OpenArabic teaches words like أَبَى through real bilingual reading with native audio and spaced-repetition practice.
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