Breakdown of قال القاضي في المحكمة إن المتهم بريء.
الal
the
فيfî
in / about, regarding
قالqâla
to say
إنinna
indeed / truly / that (after قال)
قاضqâdin
judge
محكمةmahkama
court
متهمmuttaham
defendant / accused person, suspect
بريءbari'
innocent
Questions & Answers about قال القاضي في المحكمة إن المتهم بريء.
Why is إن (inna) used here instead of أن (anna) for "that"?
After the verb قال (to say) and its variations, Arabic has a strict rule: you must use إن to mean "that," never أن. This is because قال is treated as introducing a direct quote or a complete new sentence, which always requires the heavier إن.
Does the word إن (inna) change the grammar of the rest of the sentence?
Yes! إن and its sister words force the noun that immediately follows them into the accusative case. This means المتهم (the defendant) takes a fatha ("a" sound) on its last letter, becoming المتهمَ (al-muttahama). Its predicate, بريء (innocent), stays in the nominative case with a damma ("u" sound).
Why does في المحكمة (in the court) come between the judge and what he said?
Arabic is flexible with where prepositional phrases go. Placing في المحكمة right after the subject (القاضي) is a very natural way to set the scene before delivering the core message. You could put it at the end of the sentence, but placing it here emphasizes that the ruling happened officially in court.
The word for judge is القاضي. Since it is the subject doing the saying, shouldn't it end with a damma ("u" sound)?
Normally, yes! However, nouns ending in a long "ee" sound (ي), like القاضي, drop the damma because saying "al-qadiyu" is heavy on the tongue. The subject case marker is assumed to be there in the grammar, but it is kept hidden for easier pronunciation.
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