Breakdown of نعم، وجدت القلم تحت الطاولة.
الal
the
نعمna'am
yes
قلمqalam
pen
طاولةtâwilatun
table
تحتtahta
under
وجدwajada
to find / to exist, there is (passive)
Questions & Answers about نعم، وجدت القلم تحت الطاولة.
How do we know وجدت means "I found" instead of "he found"?
In Arabic, past tense verbs show who is doing the action by adding a suffix to the end. The base word here is وجد (wajada), which by itself means "he found". To say "I found", we add the singular suffix ـت (tu) to the end, making it وجدت (wajadtu).
Why isn't the Arabic word for "I" (أنا) included before the verb?
Because the "I" is already built into the verb! The ـت ending on وجدت tells us exactly who did the action. In Arabic, you usually drop the separate pronoun like أنا unless you want to add special emphasis.
Is the word order for phrases like "under the table" the same as in English?
Yes! Location words like تحت (under) go right before the noun, exactly as they do in English. So تحت (under) followed by الطاولة (the table) makes تحت الطاولة.
When speaking, why do we pronounce the "L" sound in القلم but not in الطاولة?
This is a great time to remember the "Sun and Moon letters" rule! The letter ق in القلم (al-qalam) is a Moon letter, so we pronounce the "L" in the ال (al) prefix. The letter ط in الطاولة (at-taawila) is a Sun letter, so the "L" sound is skipped and the ط sound is doubled instead.
Learn نعم، وجدت القلم تحت الطاولة and more in Arabic
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free