Questions & Answers about هذا المهندس لبناني.
Why is there no word for 'is' in this sentence?
In Arabic, simple 'is' or 'are' sentences in the present tense don't use a verb. You just put the subject (هذا المهندس, meaning 'this engineer') right next to the information about them (لبناني, meaning 'Lebanese') and the 'is' is understood automatically.
How do we know it means 'This engineer is Lebanese' and not 'This is a Lebanese engineer'?
The secret is the word for 'the' (الـ). Because 'engineer' has 'the' attached to it (المهندس), it links with 'this' (هذا) to form the phrase 'This engineer'. If you wanted to say 'This is an engineer', you would leave off the 'the' and just say هذا مهندس.
Why does the word for 'Lebanese' end in a long 'ee' sound?
The word لبناني is made by taking the country name لبنان (Lebanon) and adding the suffix ـي. In Arabic, adding this ending to a place name creates an adjective describing a person or thing from that place. Since the engineer here is male, we use the masculine ending ـي.
If the engineer were female, how would this sentence change?
Every word would change to match the feminine gender! 'This' becomes هذه, 'the engineer' gets a feminine ending المهندسة, and 'Lebanese' gets a feminine ending too, becoming لبنانية. So the whole female sentence would be هذه المهندسة لبنانية.
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