Breakdown of لعب الطالب التنس مع صديقه.
الal
the
طالبtâlib
student
صديقsadîq
friend
هhu
his / him (object) / it (dummy pronoun after لأن)
معma'a
with
لعبlaiba
to play
تنسtinis
tennis
Questions & Answers about لعب الطالب التنس مع صديقه.
The English translation says "The student played", but the Arabic starts with لعب (played). Why is the order reversed?
In Arabic, the standard sentence structure is usually Verb-Subject-Object (VSO). Instead of "The student played tennis", the sentence literally reads "Played the student tennis". Here, لعب is the verb, الطالب is the subject, and التنس is the object.
Why does التنس have ال attached to it? We don't say "the tennis" in English.
In Arabic, names of sports and general concepts usually take the definite article ال (the). So even though it sounds strange in English, Arabic requires you to say التنس (the tennis). You might also notice that the word itself is a direct loanword from English!
How does صديقه translate to "his friend" if there is no separate word for "his"?
In Arabic, possessive pronouns like "my", "your", or "his" are not separate words. Instead, they are attached to the end of the noun as suffixes. In this sentence, the base word is صديق (friend), and the attached suffix ـه makes it صديقه (his friend).
If the student were female, would the sentence still start with لعب?
No, the verb always has to match the subject's gender. If the subject was a female student (الطالبة), you would use the feminine past tense verb لعبت (she played) instead of the masculine لعب.
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