Breakdown of كانت عندي خريطة تقليدية وكاميرا قديمة.
وwa
and
قديمqadîm
old
يi
my / me (after a preposition)
عند'inda
at / to have
كانkâna
to be
تقليديtaqlîdî
traditional
خريطةkharîta
map
كاميراkâmirâ
camera
Questions & Answers about كانت عندي خريطة تقليدية وكاميرا قديمة.
Why is the feminine verb كانت used here instead of the masculine كان if the speaker is saying 'I had'?
In Arabic, to say 'I had X', you literally say 'X was with me'. The verb كان (was) agrees with the thing that is owned, not the owner! Because the first thing owned here is خريطة (map), which is a feminine word, the verb must be the feminine كانت.
How exactly do كانت and عندي combine to mean 'I had'?
The word عندي means 'with me', which is how we express 'I have' in the present tense. To make it past tense, we just add the past tense verb 'to be' right before it. So, كانت عندي literally means 'was with me', which we naturally translate as 'I had'.
Why do the adjectives تقليدية and قديمة both end in a taa marbuta (ة)?
Adjectives in Arabic must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because they describe خريطة (map) and كاميرا (camera), which are both feminine, the adjectives take the feminine ending ة. Notice also that the adjectives come immediately after their nouns!
How do we know كاميرا is a feminine word if it doesn't end in the usual feminine marker (ة)?
كاميرا is a loanword from foreign languages. In Arabic, many modern foreign words that end in a long 'a' sound, written with an alif (ا) at the end, are treated as feminine. That is why it takes the feminine adjective قديمة (old).
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