Questions & Answers about هو طالب طويل.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic doesn't use a word for "is" or "are" in present tense sentences. Instead, you just put the subject (هو, meaning "he") right next to the information about it (طالب طويل, meaning "a tall student"). This is called a nominal sentence.
Why don't the words طالب and طويل have "al-" (ال) at the beginning?
Because they are indefinite, meaning they refer to "a student" rather than "the student". In Arabic, when a word is indefinite, it takes its bare form without the "al-" prefix. When you are giving new information about a subject (the predicate part of the sentence), it is usually indefinite like this.
Why is the word order "student tall" (طالب طويل) instead of "tall student"?
In Arabic, adjectives always come right after the noun they describe. So, instead of saying "tall student", you say the equivalent of "student tall".
If I hear this read aloud with full grammar rules, why do both طالب and طويل end with an "un" sound?
That "un" sound is called Tanween. It is a grammar marker added to the end of words to show they are indefinite (similar to saying "a" or "an" in English). Because the adjective طويل describes the indefinite noun طالب, the adjective has to match it perfectly, so both words get the same Tanween ending.
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