Breakdown of المتحف على اليسار.
الal
the
على'ala
on / of (evidence of) / to (lie to someone) / for (difficult for someone)
متحفmat'haf
museum
يسارyasâr
Questions & Answers about المتحف على اليسار.
Where is the word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic doesn't use a word for "is" or "are" in present-tense sentences like this. You simply place the subject (المتحف, the museum) next to its location (على اليسار, on the left) to make the complete sentence.
Why does the word على end with a letter that looks like a yaa (ي) but has no dots?
That letter is an alif maqsurah (ى). It acts just like a regular alif and makes a long "aa" sound. You will often see it at the end of small words and prepositions like على (on).
How do you pronounce على and اليسار when they are spoken together?
When speaking at a normal pace, the "aa" sound at the end of على drops out, and you jump straight to the "L" sound in اليسار. It flows together to sound like "alal-yasaar".
Why does the Arabic word for "left" include the prefix ال (the)?
Just like in English where we say "on the left", Arabic does the exact same thing! Directions used as locations, like left (يسار) and right (يمين), take the definite prefix ال (the) to become اليسار (the left).