Breakdown of كان عند جدي مذياع وآلة تقليدية.
وwa
and
يi
my / me (after a preposition)
عند'inda
at / to have
كانkâna
to be
جدjadd
grandfather
مذياعmidhyâ'
radio
آلةâla
machine / instrument, tool
تقليديtaqlîdî
traditional
Questions & Answers about كان عند جدي مذياع وآلة تقليدية.
Why do we use كان and عند together to mean 'had'?
In Arabic, there is no direct verb for 'to have'. Instead, you use a word like عند (at/with) to express 'having' something in the present tense. Because عند is not a verb and cannot show past tense on its own, we put the past-tense verb كان (was) in front of it. So كان عند literally means 'there was at/with', which translates smoothly to 'had'.
Does the verb كان (was) agree with 'my grandfather' or the things he owned?
It actually agrees with the things he owned! In the Arabic structure, the owned items are the subject, so the sentence literally acts like 'A radio and a machine were with my grandfather.' Because the first owned item, مذياع (radio), is a masculine word, we use the masculine verb form كان instead of the feminine كانت.
Where is the word for 'my' in جدي (my grandfather)?
In Arabic, possession like 'my', 'your', or 'his' is shown by adding a suffix to the end of the noun. The base word for grandfather is جد. By adding the suffix ي to the end, it becomes جدي, meaning 'my grandfather'.
Why does the adjective تقليدية (traditional) have a feminine ending?
Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Here, 'traditional' describes the آلة (machine). Because آلة is a feminine noun that ends in a taa marbuta (the ة character), the adjective تقليدية must also take that same feminine ending.
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