Breakdown of شكرا، هذا الطعام لذيذ جدا.
الal
the
هذاhâdhâ
this (m)
طعامta'âm
food
لذيذlazîz
delicious
جداjiddan
very
شكراshukran
thank you
Questions & Answers about شكرا، هذا الطعام لذيذ جدا.
Why do شكرا and جدا end with an extra Alif and two little lines?
Those two diagonal lines make an '-an' sound and mark a word as being in the indefinite accusative case, which is the focus of this lesson! Adverbs like جدا (very) and fixed expressions like شكرا (thank you) usually take this ending. The extra Alif (ـا) is a spelling rule: it acts as a silent 'chair' to hold the '-an' sound at the end of most words.
Where is the word for 'is' in this sentence?
Arabic does not use a word for 'is' or 'are' in the present tense. To say 'this food is very delicious', you just put the subject (هذا الطعام, meaning 'this food') right next to the description (لذيذ جدا, meaning 'delicious very').
Why does 'this food' translate to هذا الطعام with the word for 'the' (الـ) attached to 'food'?
In Arabic, when you want to say 'this [noun]', the noun must be definite, meaning it needs الـ (the). If you left it off and just wrote هذا طعام, the meaning would change to a full sentence: 'This is food' instead of 'This food'.
Why does جدا (very) come after لذيذ (delicious) instead of before it?
Unlike English, where 'very' comes before the adjective, the Arabic word جدا always comes immediately after the adjective it emphasizes. So literally, you are saying 'delicious very'.
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