Learn Arabic (Modern Standard): أين عشت في فترة الشباب؟ - Where did you live during the period of youth?

عشت comes from the hollow verb عاش (to live). Hollow verbs have a weak middle letter. When conjugating them for 'I', 'we', or 'you' in the past tense, this middle letter is dropped to avoid having two unvoweled consonants next to each other. The vowel sound changes to match the original root, which is why it is pronounced with a short 'i' sound here.

How can I tell if عشت means 'I lived', 'you lived (masculine)', or 'you lived (feminine)'?

In unvoweled Arabic, the spelling عشت is exactly the same for all three! It can be pronounced 'ishtu (I), 'ishta (you, masc.), or 'ishti (you, fem.). You have to rely on context. Here, the question word أين (where) strongly suggests the speaker is asking someone else: 'Where did you live?'.

Where is the word for 'of' in فترة الشباب (the period of youth)?

Arabic doesn't use a separate word for 'of'. Instead, it uses an Idafa (possessive construction) by placing the nouns side by side. The first word فترة (period) is left without the definite article, while the second word الشباب (youth) takes the definite article ال. Together, they mean 'the period of youth'.

Why does the word الشباب have the definite article ال if the English translation just says 'youth'?