Questions & Answers about لا، المريض هناك.
The English translation specifies "patient (m)". How do we know this refers to a male?
You can tell المريض is masculine because it does not end with the feminine marker Taa' Marboota (ة). To talk about a female patient, you would add this letter to the end of the word, making it المريضة.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic does not use a word for "is" or "are" in the present tense. To say "The patient is there", you simply place the subject and the location next to each other: المريض هناك.
If we changed the sentence to be about a female patient, would the word for "there" change too?
No, the word هناك means "there" and indicates a location. Unlike adjectives, location words do not change to match the gender of the noun they describe.
Why are the letters "ال" joined to the word for patient?
The prefix ال means "the". In Arabic, the word for "the" is never a standalone word; it is always attached directly to the beginning of the noun. So, مريض means "a patient", and المريض means "the patient".
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