Breakdown of كانت عند الأستاذ كاميرا قديمة.
قديمqadîm
old
أستاذustâdh
professor / teacher
عند'inda
at / to have
كانkâna
to be
كاميراkâmirâ
camera
Questions & Answers about كانت عند الأستاذ كاميرا قديمة.
Why do we use words for 'was' (كانت) and 'at' (عند) to say 'had'?
Arabic doesn't have a direct verb for 'to have'. To say someone has something, you use a preposition like عند (at or with). To make it past tense ('had'), you add the past tense verb كان (was) before it. Literally, this sentence says 'An old camera was at the teacher.'
The teacher (الأستاذ) is masculine, so why do we use the feminine verb كانت instead of the masculine كان?
This is a common trap! In Arabic possession sentences, the thing being owned is the actual grammatical subject. Because the owned object here is a camera (كاميرا), which is feminine, the verb 'was' must match it and become feminine (كانت).
Why does the word for 'old' (قديمة) end with a feminine taa marbuta (ة)?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. The noun here is كاميرا (camera). Even though it is a borrowed English word and doesn't end in the typical feminine marker (taa marbuta), Arabic treats it as a feminine noun. Therefore, the adjective must take the feminine ending to become قديمة.
Why does the owned object (كاميرا قديمة) come at the very end of the sentence?
In Arabic, when the subject is indefinite (meaning 'a camera' rather than 'the camera'), it is standard to put the prepositional phrase (عند الأستاذ) before it. This makes the sentence flow much more naturally than if you put the camera first.
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