Breakdown of احتفلنا بالمشروع الجديد.
الal
the
جديدjadeed
new
مشروعmashrû'
project / draft (bill)
احتفل بihtafala bi
to celebrate
Questions & Answers about احتفلنا بالمشروع الجديد.
How do we know احتفلنا means "we celebrated" and not just "celebrated"?
In Arabic, past tense verbs use suffixes (endings) to tell you who did the action. The plural suffix for "we" is ـنا (-naa). By adding it to the end of the base verb, احتفل (he celebrated) becomes احتفلنا (we celebrated).
Why is there a بـ attached to the beginning of بالمشروع?
The verb احتفل (to celebrate) requires the preposition بـ (bi-) to introduce what is being celebrated. While in English we just say "celebrated the project," Arabic expresses this as celebrating with or by the project.
Where is the word "the" in بالمشروع?
It is right in the middle! The word for "project" is مشروع, and "the project" is المشروع. In Arabic, single-letter prepositions like بـ (bi-) attach directly to the front of the next word. When you attach it to a word starting with الـ (al-), the "a" sound drops out when you speak, so بـ + المشروع is pronounced "bil-mashruu'".
Why does the adjective الجديد (new) have الـ (the) at the beginning?
In Arabic, adjectives must match the noun they describe. Because the noun "the project" is definite (it has الـ meaning "the"), the describing adjective "new" must also take الـ. You are literally saying "the project, the new."