Questions & Answers about هذه السيارة قديمة.
Why is there no word for "is" in this sentence?
In Arabic, sentences don't use a word for "is" or "are" in the present tense. To say "This car is old," you simply place the subject (هذه السيارة, this car) directly before the descriptive word (قديمة, old).
How does Arabic distinguish "This car is old" from "This is an old car"?
The secret is the definite article, ال (the). When a pointing word like هذه (this) is followed by a noun with ال, they link together to mean "This car". If we removed the ال and wrote هذه سيارة قديمة, it would change the meaning to "This is an old car."
Why use هذه instead of هذا for "this"?
هذه is the feminine version of "this". We must use it because the word for car, السيارة, is a feminine noun. You can easily spot that it's feminine because it ends with the round letter taa marbuta (ة).
Why does the word for "old" (قديمة) end with a ة?
In Arabic, adjectives have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because the car is feminine, the adjective "old" must take the feminine ending ة. If we were talking about a masculine noun, like a house (بيت), we would use the masculine form قديم.
Why doesn't قديمة have ال (the) attached to it like the car does?
Leaving the adjective indefinite (without ال) is what creates the invisible "is" in the sentence. If you put ال on both words (السيارة القديمة), it just means "the old car" as a phrase, not a complete sentence.
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