Questions & Answers about يجلس الولد تحت الشجرة.
Since تحت means "under", why isn't there another word to link it to الشجرة (the tree)?
In Arabic, adverbs of place like تحت connect directly to the noun they describe. They form a grammatical pair similar to a possessive "of" phrase (called an Idafa). You simply place the adverb right before the noun without any extra prepositions, acting almost like "the under of the tree."
The noun الشجرة ends in a taa marbuta (ة) and is feminine. Do we need to change تحت to be feminine too?
No. Words like تحت are adverbs of place, and unlike adjectives, they have a fixed form. They never change their spelling to match the gender or plural form of the nouns next to them.
Why is the verb يجلس (sits) at the very beginning of the sentence?
Modern Standard Arabic strongly prefers a Verb-Subject word order. Starting the sentence with the action, literally "Sits the boy under the tree", is the most standard and natural way to structure this thought.
How does the verb يجلس show that a male is doing the sitting?
Present tense verbs in Arabic use prefixes to show who is doing the action. The letter يـ at the beginning of يجلس is the marker for "he" (third-person masculine singular). If the subject were a girl, the verb would start with تـ instead.