Questions & Answers about النهر البارد واسع.
Why does البارد (cold) have the "al-" prefix, but واسع (wide) does not?
This is how Arabic builds sentences without using a word for "is"! Adjectives that belong directly to a noun must match it in definiteness. Since النهر (the river) has "al-" (the), البارد also gets "al-" to form the phrase "the cold river". However, واسع (wide) is the predicate—the new information being stated. By keeping it indefinite (no "al-"), it creates the break where "is" belongs in English: "The cold river [is] wide."
Why are the words ordered as "the river the cold" instead of "the cold river"?
In Arabic, an adjective always comes immediately after the noun it describes. So, you first state the noun النهر (the river) and then follow it with its description البارد (the cold).
How can we tell from this sentence that النهر (river) is a masculine word?
We can tell by looking at the adjectives! Both البارد and واسع are in their base, masculine forms. If النهر were a feminine word, both of these adjectives would need to match its gender by adding the feminine marker "taa marbuuta" to the end, which would look like الباردة and واسعة.
Do I pronounce the "L" in the "al-" prefix for both words?
No, they are pronounced differently! The first letter of النهر (n) is a "sun letter", which means it swallows the "L" sound, so it is pronounced "an-nahr". The first letter of البارد (b) is a "moon letter", so the "L" is pronounced normally: "al-baarid".