Breakdown of ذهبت للمطعم الرابع.
الal
the
ذهبdhahaba
to go
مطعمmat'am
restaurant
لli
for, to (attached)
رابعrâbi'
fourth
Questions & Answers about ذهبت للمطعم الرابع.
Why does the word for fourth (الرابع) have "the" (الـ) attached to it?
In Arabic, ordinal numbers like "fourth" act as adjectives. A key rule is that adjectives must match their noun in definiteness. Because we are talking about a specific place, "the restaurant", the ordinal number must also be definite. So, we literally say "the restaurant the fourth".
How can I tell if I should use الرابع or the feminine form الرابعة?
Ordinal numbers must match the gender of the noun they describe. The word for restaurant, مطعم, doesn't have the standard feminine ending, so it is a masculine word. Therefore, we use the masculine form الرابع (fourth) instead of the feminine الرابعة.
How is رابع (fourth) connected to the regular number four?
The regular number four is أربعة (arba'a). Ordinal numbers from 2 to 10 are built by taking the core root consonants of the number (in this case r-b-') and placing them into a specific rhythm or sound pattern. This pattern makes it sound like "faa'il", which turns the root for four into رابع (raabi').
Why is "to the restaurant" written as للمطعم instead of لالمطعم?
This word combines the preposition لـ (li, meaning "to" or "for") with the noun المطعم (al-mat'am, meaning "the restaurant"). There is a special spelling rule in Arabic: whenever the preposition لـ attaches to a word starting with the definite article الـ (al), the first letter (alif) is completely dropped from the spelling. This gives us للمطعم (li-l-mat'am).
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