Questions & Answers about المساعدة من المتطوعين.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
In Arabic, you don't need a word for "is" in the present tense. This is a "nominal sentence" (a sentence that starts with a noun). You just put the subject, المساعدة (The help), next to the phrase من المتطوعين (from the volunteers), and "is" is automatically understood.
The current lesson is about present tense verbs. Is المساعدة a verb?
No, المساعدة is a noun meaning "the help" or "the assistance". You can tell it is a noun because it starts with الـ (the) and ends with the feminine letter taa marbuta (ة). Verbs in Arabic never take these markers.
Why does المتطوعين (the volunteers) end in ـين (-īn) instead of the regular masculine plural ending ـون (-ūn)?
Regular masculine plural nouns usually end in ـون (-ūn). However, because المتطوعين comes right after the preposition من (from), its ending changes to ـين (-īn). In Arabic grammar, prepositions always force the noun directly after them to change its case ending.
Since we are learning plural verbs, how would I say "The volunteers help" as an action instead?
You would use an actual verb and say: يساعد المتطوعون. Notice that the word for volunteers changed back to ending in ـون (-ūn) because it is now the main subject doing the action, rather than a word following a preposition.
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