Breakdown of ليس المسرح القديم مفتوحا الآن.
الal
the
الآنal-ân
now
قديمqadîm
old
مفتوحmaftûhun
open
ليسlaysa
to not be
مسرحmasrah
theatre / stage (platform)
Questions & Answers about ليس المسرح القديم مفتوحا الآن.
Why is the word for "open" written as مفتوحا with an extra Alif at the end?
Because it is the predicate (the part giving us new information) of a sentence starting with ليس (is not). When we use ليس, the word that tells us what the subject is not takes the "accusative" case. For an indefinite word like مفتوح, this means adding an Alif with a double "a" sound at the end to make it مفتوحا.
Why do we use ليس here instead of لا to mean "not"?
We use لا mostly to negate present-tense action verbs (like "I do not go"). To negate a "nominal" sentence—a sentence describing what something is, which wouldn't normally have a verb in Arabic—we use ليس to say "is not".
Both المسرح and القديم have ال (al-) at the beginning. Why doesn't مفتوحا have it?
القديم (old) is an adjective describing the theatre, so it must match المسرح and take ال to mean "the old theatre". مفتوحا (open) is the predicate giving us the actual news about the theatre, and predicates in Arabic are usually indefinite (without ال). If it had ال, the phrase would just mean "the open old theatre" instead of making a full sentence.
Does the word الآن (now) change how ليس works?
No, ليس is structurally a past-tense verb, but it always translates to "is not" in the present. Adding الآن (now) just emphasizes that the theatre is closed at this exact moment, without changing the grammar.
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