Questions & Answers about هل هذا الباب مغلق؟
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic doesn't use a verb for "is" in the present tense. Instead, you create an "is" sentence by putting a definite subject (like هذا الباب, meaning "this door") next to an indefinite adjective (like مغلق, meaning "closed").
Why doesn't مغلق have the definite article الـ like the word for door does?
This is how we make predicative adjectives! If it had الـ, the phrase هذا الباب المغلق would just be a fragment meaning "this closed door". By leaving the الـ off مغلق (making it indefinite), it acts as the predicate, completing the sentence to mean "this door is closed".
Why is it هذا الباب (literally "this the door") instead of just هذا باب?
In Arabic, to say "this [noun]", the noun must have the definite article الـ. If you wrote هذا باب without the الـ, it would be a complete sentence meaning "This is a door". Adding الـ makes it a single phrase ("this door") that we can use as the subject of our sentence.
Does هل directly translate to "is"?
Not quite. هل is a special word (a particle) placed at the beginning of a statement to turn it into a yes/no question. While English turns a statement into a question by adding "is" to the front, Arabic just places هل in front of the normal statement هذا الباب مغلق ("This door is closed").