Breakdown of انتهت في الساعة العاشرة والثلث.
الal
the
وwa
and
فيfî
in / about, regarding
ساعةsâ'a
watch / hour
عاشرâshir
tenth
انتهىintahâ
to finish
ثلثthuluth
third (fraction)
Questions & Answers about انتهت في الساعة العاشرة والثلث.
Why is "twenty past" written as والثلث?
In Arabic, we tell time using fractions of an hour. The word الثلث means "the third" (one third of 60 minutes is exactly 20 minutes). Adding the prefix و (and) makes it literally "the tenth hour and a third", which means 10:20.
Why do we use العاشرة instead of the regular number for ten?
When telling time, Arabic uses ordinal numbers (like first, second, third, tenth) rather than standard counting numbers (one, two, three, ten). You are literally saying "the tenth hour".
Why do both الساعة and العاشرة end with the letter ة (taa marbuuta)?
The word الساعة (the hour/clock) is a feminine noun. Because the number العاشرة acts as an adjective describing the hour, it must match the noun's gender. The ة at the end is the standard marker to make it feminine.
The verb انتهت has the "she" ending for past tense verbs. Why does the English translation say "It finished"?
Arabic doesn't have a neutral "it" pronoun; every single noun is treated as either masculine ("he") or feminine ("she"). The ـت suffix shows the verb is feminine, which tells us that the unspoken subject (like a meeting, party, or class) is a feminine word in Arabic.
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