Questions & Answers about هل المدينة قديمة؟
Why doesn't the word for old have "the" (ال) at the beginning?
In Arabic verbless sentences, the subject (the city) is usually definite (has ال), but the descriptive part or predicate (old) is indefinite (no ال). This contrast is exactly how Arabic expresses the word "is". If both words had ال, then المدينة القديمة would simply mean "the old city" rather than being a full sentence.
Why do both "city" and "old" end with the letter ة (taa marbuta)?
In Arabic, adjectives must match the noun they describe in gender. The word for city, المدينة, is a feminine noun, which is indicated by the ة at the end. Because the city is feminine, the adjective قديم (old) must also add a ة to become قديمة.
Where is the verb "is" in this sentence?
There is no verb for "is" or "are" in the present tense in Arabic! Instead of saying "is the city old", you use the question word هل at the beginning to signal a yes/no question, followed by the subject (المدينة) and the indefinite predicate (قديمة).
How do I pronounce the end of قديمة here?
In everyday speech, or when pausing at the end of a sentence, you can just pronounce the final ة with an "ah" sound: "qadīmah". However, if you are reading with full formal grammar, it gets the "un" sound ending (called Tanween) to show it is an indefinite predicate, becoming "qadīmatun".