Breakdown of يدرس أخي في مدرسة كبيرة.
فيfî
in / about, regarding
كبيرkabîr
big
مدرسةmadrasah
school
أخakh
brother
يi
my / me (after a preposition)
درسdarasa
to study
Questions & Answers about يدرس أخي في مدرسة كبيرة.
Why does the sentence start with the verb يدرس (studies) instead of أخي (my brother)?
In Arabic, sentences often start with the verb. You could also say أخي يدرس (My brother studies), but putting the verb first (يدرس أخي) is standard for a verbal sentence and is very common and natural in Modern Standard Arabic.
How do we get my brother from the word أخ (brother)?
To say my in Arabic, you add the possessive suffix ي to the end of the noun. So, the word أخ (brother) becomes أخي (my brother).
Why is the word for big (كبيرة) placed after the word for school (مدرسة)?
In Arabic, adjectives always come after the noun they describe. So instead of saying big school, you literally say school big (مدرسة كبيرة).
Both مدرسة (school) and كبيرة (big) end with the same letter (ة). Why is that?
That letter is the taa marbouta (ة), which usually marks a word as feminine. Adjectives must match their nouns in gender. Since مدرسة is a feminine noun, the adjective كبيرة must also have the feminine ending.
The word في usually means in. Why is it translated as at a big school here?
Prepositions rarely translate perfectly between languages. In Arabic, you literally say that someone studies in a school (في مدرسة), but in English, it is much more natural to say at a school in this context.
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