أَلَمْ was not in Arabic
أَلَمْ is how you say “was not” in Arabic.
Arabic
English
The audio uses AI voices.
Example sentence
ألم نَجعَلُ الأرضَ كِفاتا، أحياءً وأمواتا
Have We not made the earth a repository, for the living and the dead?
أَلَمْ Have not
This is a question-marker fused with a negation, forming 'have We not...?', a rhetorical question that expects the listener to agree. The two pieces together turn a denial into an affirmation through the form of a question, a frequent style in scripture-like address.
The English is machine-translated.
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More example sentences
ثُمَّ قَالَ أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلرَّحِيلِ
Then he said, "Is it not time to depart?"
أَلَمْ is it not
Two pieces fused: a question-marker 'a-' that turns the line into a query, plus the negator 'lam' that makes a present-shaped verb mean a negated past. Together they form a prodding 'is it not [yet] time', expecting agreement. The 'lam' also clips the following verb's ending into its special shape.
أَلَمْ تَرَ مَا قَالَ لِي سَعْدٌ
Have you not seen what Sa'd said to me?
أَلَمْ Have you not
A questioning prefix fused with the past-negator 'lam' — together 'did you not...?'. The 'lam' part flips a present verb into a negated past and forces it into the clipped (jussive) ending; the question-prefix makes it a rhetorical challenge.
قَالَ أَلَمْ تَعْلَمْ مَا قَالَ سَعْدُ بْنُ عُبَادَةِ
He said, "Did you not know what Sa'd ibn Ubadah said?"
أَلَمْ did you not
Two pieces: the question particle 'is/did?' fused with lam, the negation that pulls a verb into the past. Together they form a rhetorical 'did you not...?', and the lam part forces the following verb into its clipped shape; the tone expects agreement.