Breakdown of أحيانا، أمشي إلى المدرسة.
الal
the
إلىilâ
to
مدرسةmadrasah
school
مشىmashâ
to walk / to go, to move along (of a vehicle)
أحياناaḥyânan
sometimes
Questions & Answers about أحيانا، أمشي إلى المدرسة.
Why does أحيانا have an Alif with two small lines (ـاً) at the end?
The two lines are the tanween fatha (an "an" sound), which marks the indefinite accusative case you are learning about now. When used like this, it often turns a noun into an adverb. Here, it turns the root word for "time" into "sometimes". The extra Alif is added to the end of the word simply to act as a physical seat to hold those two little lines.
How do we know أمشي means "I walk", without using the word for "I" (أنا)?
In Arabic, present tense verbs have prefixes that tell you exactly who is doing the action. The Alif with a hamza (أ) at the very beginning of أمشي is the marker for "I". Because the verb already includes the "I", you don't need to add أنا unless you want to add special emphasis.
The word إلى ends in what looks like a ي, so why is it pronounced with a long "a" sound?
That letter is called an Alif Maqsura (ى). It looks exactly like a Yaa (ي) but without the two dots underneath. It acts as a vowel and makes a long "a" sound. You will see it very often at the end of small words like prepositions.
Why doesn't المدرسة take the same ـاً ending as أحيانا?
The ـاً ending is only for indefinite words (words without "the"). المدرسة starts with ال (the), making it definite. Also, because it comes right after the preposition إلى (to), it is forced into a different case entirely, which uses an "i" sound ending rather than the "an" sound.
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