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Questions & Answers about البيت نظيف.
Why isn't there a word for "is" in this sentence?
In Arabic, simple descriptive sentences don't use a verb for "is" in the present tense. Just putting the definite noun البيت (the house) next to the indefinite adjective نظيف (clean) automatically means "The house is clean."
Since the current lesson is about pronouns like هو (he/it), should I add it here?
No, you don't need هو here. To say "The house is clean," you just say البيت نظيف. If you wanted to replace "The house" entirely and just say "It is clean," then you would use the pronoun as the subject and say هو نظيف.
Why does البيت have ال (the) but نظيف doesn't?
This difference is exactly how Arabic builds an "X is Y" sentence! If both words had ال (like البيت النظيف), it would just be the phrase "the clean house." Leaving ال off the adjective gives us the complete sentence "The house is clean."
How do we know if نظيف should be masculine or feminine?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. The word for house, البيت, is a masculine noun. Therefore, we use the masculine form of the adjective, نظيف.