Breakdown of ما هرب السائق من الشرطة.
الal
the
منmin
from
سائقsâ'iq
driver
ماmâ
not (negating a past verb or a sentence)
شرطةshurta
police
هربharaba
to escape
Questions & Answers about ما هرب السائق من الشرطة.
Why do we use ما instead of لا here?
In Arabic, we use ما to say "not" before a past tense verb. Since هرب means "escaped" (past tense), we use ما to make it "did not escape". The word لا is usually saved for present tense verbs.
Why does the verb هرب come before the subject السائق?
This sentence uses the standard Arabic "verbal sentence" structure, which usually follows a Verb-Subject-Object order. The negative word ما goes at the very beginning, followed by the verb هرب (escaped), and then the subject who did the action, السائق (the driver).
Why isn't the "L" sound pronounced in the words for "the driver" and "the police"?
Both السائق and الشرطة start with what we call "sun letters" (س and ش). When a word starts with a sun letter, we do not pronounce the "L" sound in the word for "the" (ال). Instead, the sound blends into the first letter of the word, so they are pronounced "as-saa'iq" and "ash-shurta".
Is the word for police, الشرطة, a feminine word?
Yes! You can tell because it ends with a taa marboota (ة), which is the tied loop letter at the end of the word. Even though an institution like the police doesn't have a natural gender, the word itself is grammatically feminine.
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