Word
أين الكلب؟ الكلب على الشارع.
Meaning
Where is the dog? The dog is on the street.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of أين الكلب؟ الكلب على الشارع.
أينayna
where
الal
the
كلبkalb
dog
على'ala
on / of (evidence of) / to (lie to someone) / for (difficult for someone)
Questions & Answers about أين الكلب؟ الكلب على الشارع.
How do I know whether to use على (on) or في (in) with the street?
Just like in English, prepositions in Arabic can take some getting used to. Here, على means on (as in on the surface of the street). You might also hear people say في الشارع (in the street). Both are correct and widely understood, but this lesson focuses on practicing على.
Where is the word for 'is' in both the question and the answer?
In Arabic, there is no word for 'is' or 'are' in the present tense. To say 'The dog is on the street', you simply place the subject (الكلب) right next to the location phrase (على الشارع).
Why do we pronounce the word for the street as 'ash-shaari' instead of 'al-shaari'?
The Arabic letter sheen in الشارع is a sun letter. When a word starts with a sun letter, the 'l' sound in the word for 'the' (ال) disappears, and you double the sun letter's sound instead.
Does the preposition على change the grammar of the word الشارع?
Yes! In formal Arabic, prepositions like على force the following noun into the genitive case. This means الشارع takes a kasra (a short 'i' vowel sound) at the very end. However, in everyday conversation, people usually just drop this final vowel sound.