Questions & Answers about سمع الأستاذ قصة.
Why does the sentence start with the verb سمع instead of the professor?
In Arabic, verbal sentences typically follow a Verb-Subject-Object order. Instead of saying 'The professor heard', we usually say 'Heard the professor a story.'
How would we change this to say 'The two professors heard a story'?
You would change the subject الأستاذ to the dual form الأستاذان. Because the professor is the subject doing the action, we use the ـان (-aan) ending rather than the ـين (-ayn) ending. Notice that the verb سمع stays singular because it comes before the subject!
What if he heard two stories? How do we use the dual suffix on قصة?
Since the story is the object (the thing being heard), we use the ـين (-ayn) ending. The word قصة ends in a taa marbuuta (ة), which must open up into a regular ت before we can add the suffix. So, 'two stories' becomes قصتين.
There is no Arabic word for 'a' here. How do we know it means 'a story' rather than 'the story'?
Arabic does not have a word for 'a' or 'an'. When a noun like قصة (story) does not have the definite article ال (the) attached to its beginning, it is automatically understood as indefinite, meaning 'a story'.