Questions & Answers about رسمت البنت تسع أشجار.
Why is the number for 'nine' (تسع) masculine when it is counting 'trees' (أشجار)?
This is the 'reverse agreement' rule for numbers 3 to 10. To decide the gender of the number, you always look at the singular form of the noun being counted. The singular is شجرة (tree), which is feminine because it ends in a 'taa marbuta'. Because the singular is feminine, the number takes the opposite gender: the masculine form تسع instead of the feminine تسعة.
What grammatical form does the word 'trees' (أشجار) take after the number 9?
For numbers 3 through 10, the counted noun must be plural, which is why we use أشجار instead of the singular شجرة. Additionally, the noun acts like the second part of an 'Idafa' (possession structure) belonging to the number, so it takes the genitive case. With full vowel endings, it is pronounced with a double 'kasra' sound at the end: أشجارٍ (ashjaarin).
Why does the verb رسمت (drew) come before the subject البنت (the girl)?
In Arabic, the most common and natural sentence structure is Verb-Subject-Object (VSO). So, instead of saying 'The girl drew' like we do in English, Arabic usually puts the action first, essentially saying 'Drew the girl'.
How do you pronounce the transition between رسمت (rasamat) and البنت (al-bintu)?
The verb رسمت ends in a consonant 't' sound. The following word, البنت, begins with the 'al-' prefix. To avoid having two consonant sounds crash into each other, Arabic naturally adds a short 'i' helper vowel between them when speaking out loud. You pronounce the phrase smoothly as 'rasamati-l-bintu'.
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