Breakdown of المهندسون مشغولون في هذا المشروع.
الal
the
فيfî
in / about, regarding
هذاhâdhâ
this (m)
مشغولmashghûl
busy
مهندسmuhandis
engineer
مشروعmashrû'
project / draft (bill)
Questions & Answers about المهندسون مشغولون في هذا المشروع.
Why do both المهندسون and مشغولون end in ـون?
They are both regular masculine plurals in the nominative case. المهندسون (the engineers) is the subject of the sentence, and مشغولون (busy) is the predicate giving us information about the subject. In an Arabic sentence without a verb, both the subject and predicate are nominative, which means regular masculine plurals end in ـون instead of ـين.
Why doesn't مشغولون have الـ at the beginning to match المهندسون?
Because this is a complete sentence meaning 'The engineers ARE busy.' To create this 'is/are' relationship in Arabic, the subject (المهندسون) is definite, but the predicate (مشغولون) must be indefinite. If you added الـ to make it المهندسون المشغولون, it would just be a phrase meaning 'the busy engineers' rather than a full sentence.
How does the phrase هذا المشروع work to mean 'this project'?
When you want to say 'this noun' in Arabic, the demonstrative word like هذا comes first, and the noun following it must have the definite article الـ. So, هذا المشروع means 'this project.' If you left off the الـ and wrote هذا مشروع, it would become a complete sentence meaning 'This is a project.'
Does the preposition في change the ending of the words after it?
Yes, a preposition like في puts the following noun phrase into the genitive case. The word هذا never changes its shape. However, the noun attached to it, المشروع, does change. In fully voweled Arabic, its last letter takes a kasra (an 'i' sound), making it المشروعِ (al-mashru'i).
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