Questions & Answers about عندي سؤال.
How does عندي translate to "I have" if Arabic doesn't have a verb for "to have"?
You're right, Arabic uses a different structure. عندي is made of the preposition عند (which means "at" or "with") and the attached pronoun ـي (meaning "me" or "my"). So, you are literally saying "at me" or "with me" to mean "I have".
Why use عند here instead of لي or مع to say "I have"?
عند is the best choice for abstract things like a question, an idea, or time. While مع means you physically have something on you right now, and لي is mostly used for family members or permanent relationships (like "I have a sister"), عند is your go-to word for general ownership or possessing abstract concepts.
Why is the word order flipped? Shouldn't "I" come first?
In this Arabic sentence, the structure is literally "At me is a question." Because the word "question" (سؤال) is indefinite (meaning "a question", not "the question"), Arabic grammar requires the possession part (عندي) to come first in the sentence.
What is the little symbol above the letter waw in the word سؤال?
That is a hamza (ء), which represents a glottal stop (a brief pause or catch in your throat, like in the middle of "uh-oh"). In the middle of a word, the hamza often needs a "seat" to sit on. Because of the vowels in سؤال (su-aal), the rules of Arabic spelling dictate that its seat is the letter waw (ؤ).
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