Questions & Answers about زجاج السيارة نظيف.
How do we say "the car's glass" if there is no word for "of" or "'s" here?
In Arabic, possession is shown by putting two nouns right next to each other. This is called the Idafa construction. By placing زجاج (glass) directly before السيارة (the car), it automatically means "the glass of the car" or "the car's glass".
Why doesn't the word for glass (زجاج) have the word "the" (ال) attached to it?
In an Idafa (possessive) phrase, the first word never takes ال (the). It becomes definite automatically just by being owned by the second word. So, زجاج السيارة already means "the glass of the car" without needing ال on the first word.
The word for car (السيارة) is feminine. Why is the adjective for clean (نظيف) in its masculine form?
The adjective نظيف (clean) is describing the glass (زجاج), not the car (السيارة). Because زجاج is a masculine word, the adjective describing it must also be masculine.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic doesn't use a word for "is" or "are" in simple present tense sentences. You just state the subject (زجاج السيارة, the car's glass) followed by its description (نظيف, clean), and the "is" is naturally understood!
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