Questions & Answers about لا، القط بطيء.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic doesn't use a word for "is" or "are" in the present tense! Instead, you just put the subject (القط, the cat) and the describing word (بطيء, slow) right next to each other. This creates a full sentence, which is known in Arabic as a nominal sentence.
Why doesn't the word for slow (بطيء) have "ال" (al-) at the beginning like the word for cat does?
That is exactly how Arabic shows that "slow" is the predicate (the part giving information about the subject). If both words had the definite article ال, they would link together to mean "the slow cat" (القط البطيء). By leaving ال off the adjective, it becomes a complete sentence: "The cat is slow."
If I wanted to say "No, the female cat is slow", how would this sentence change?
Adjectives always have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because القط is masculine, بطيء is masculine. For a female cat (القطة), you must add the feminine ending taa marbuutah (ة) to the adjective too. The sentence would become لا، القطة بطيئة.
What is the small symbol at the very end of بطيء?
That is a hamza (ء). It represents a glottal stop, which is a sharp catch in your throat, similar to the sound in the middle of the English word "uh-oh". Because it comes right after a long "ee" sound in this word, the pronunciation ends with a sudden, crisp stop.
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