Breakdown of هو لا يأكل ليلا.
هوhuwa
he / his / him (attached)
أكلakala
to eat
ليلlayl
night
لاlâ
not (with present verb)
Questions & Answers about هو لا يأكل ليلا.
Why does the word for "night" (ليلا) have an extra Alif and two small lines at the end?
The base word for night is ليل (layl). To say "at night", Arabic uses it as an adverb of time. In Arabic, adverbs usually take the "accusative" case. Because the word is indefinite (it has no "the"), it gets the indefinite accusative ending: a double-fatha symbol with a helper Alif (ـاً), becoming ليلاً (laylan).
How exactly is ليلا pronounced? Do I pronounce that final Alif?
You pronounce it "laylan". The two small diagonal lines are the double-fatha, which makes an "an" sound. The tall Alif at the very end is just a spelling rule to support this accusative ending; you do not actually pronounce it as a long "aa" vowel here.
Why use لا (la) here for "not" instead of ليس (laysa)?
You use لا (la) to negate present tense verbs like يأكل (he eats). You might remember ليس (laysa) from earlier lessons, but that is used to negate "nominal" sentences (sentences that describe things without an action verb, like "The house is not big").
Since يأكل means "he eats", is the pronoun هو (he) at the beginning required?
No, it is optional. The verb يأكل (ya'kulu) already has "he" built into its spelling. You could just say لا يأكل ليلا and it would mean the exact same thing. Adding هو at the beginning just emphasizes who you are talking about.
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