Breakdown of استلم الهدية بذراعين مفتوحتين.
الal
the
مفتوحmaftûhun
open
بbi
by, with (attached)
استلمistalama
to receive
هديةhadiyya
gift
ذراعdhirâ'
arm
Questions & Answers about استلم الهدية بذراعين مفتوحتين.
Why do the words for 'two arms' and 'open' end in ـين instead of ـان?
The dual suffix ـان changes to ـين when the word follows a preposition or is the object of an action. Here, the word for arms comes right after the attached preposition بـ (with), so it must use ـين. The adjective describing the arms simply copies this ending to match!
I see a feminine ت in the adjective مفتوحتين (open). Is the word for 'arm' feminine?
Yes! In Arabic, body parts that come in pairs (like arms, hands, legs, and eyes) are almost always treated as feminine words. Because ذراع (arm) is feminine, any adjective describing it must also be feminine. That is why we add the ت before the dual suffix.
Where is the word for 'with' in this sentence?
The word for 'with' here is the single letter بـ attached directly to the beginning of the word for 'two arms'. This makes the combined word بذراعين (with two arms). Arabic uses this one-letter prefix to talk about the tool or method used to do something.
Why isn't there a separate word for 'He' at the beginning of the sentence?
In Arabic, the subject pronoun is usually built right into the verb. The default form of the past tense verb استلم already means 'he received' all by itself. If we wanted to say 'she received', we would add a suffix to the verb to make it استلمت.
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