Breakdown of الأخبار السياسية مهمة.
الal
the
خبرkhabar
news item
سياسيsiyâsiyy
political
مهمmuhimm
important
Questions & Answers about الأخبار السياسية مهمة.
Why do the words السياسية and مهمة end in a feminine taa marbuuTa if they describe "news"?
In Arabic, plurals for non-human things are treated grammatically like a single female person. الأخبار (the news) is a non-human plural. Therefore, any adjectives describing it or predicates talking about it must be in the feminine singular form.
Is الأخبار a plural word? In English, "news" is singular.
Yes, it is a true plural word in Arabic. The singular form is خبر, which means a single report or a piece of news. الأخبار is the plural, literally meaning multiple pieces of news.
Why does السياسية have the "al-" prefix but مهمة does not?
This is how Arabic builds a sentence without a word for "is". السياسية has the "al-" prefix to match الأخبار, grouping them together to mean "the political news". Because مهمة is indefinite (it has no "al-"), it acts as the predicate. That break in the matching pattern is exactly where you insert "is" in English: "The political news [is] important."
Why is the word for "political" pronounced "as-siyaasiyya" instead of "al-siyaasiyya"?
The Arabic letter siin in السياسية is a sun letter. When a word starts with a sun letter, the "L" sound in the definite article "al-" is skipped, and the sun letter itself is pronounced twice instead.
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