Breakdown of الأستاذات اللواتي في المختبر مشغولات جدا.
الal
the
فيfî
in / about, regarding
مشغولmashghûl
busy
جداjiddan
very
اللواتيallawâti
who (f. pl.)
أستاذةustâdha
professor
مختبرmukhtabar
laboratory
Questions & Answers about الأستاذات اللواتي في المختبر مشغولات جدا.
Why do we use اللواتي here instead of the singular feminine التي?
In Arabic, plural nouns that refer to humans (like الأستاذات, "the female professors") must use plural pronouns and adjectives. اللواتي is the specific relative pronoun for feminine plural humans. If the plural noun was non-human, you would use the singular feminine التي instead.
Where is the word for "are" in "who are in the laboratory"?
Just like in main sentences, Arabic doesn't use a "to be" verb for present tense sentences inside a relative clause. اللواتي في المختبر literally translates to "who in the laboratory," which we naturally understand as "who are in the laboratory."
Why doesn't the word for busy (مشغولات) have the word "the" (ال) attached to it?
Because مشغولات is the main predicate (the core news or information) of the sentence, telling us what the professors are. Predicates in Arabic are almost always indefinite, meaning they don't take ال. If it had ال, it would just be a regular adjective describing the professors, and the sentence would feel incomplete.
How would this sentence change if we were talking about male professors?
You would need to change the noun, the relative pronoun, and the adjective to masculine plural. The relative pronoun for masculine plural humans is الذين. The sentence would become: الأساتذة الذين في المختبر مشغولون جدا.
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