Breakdown of تأخر صديقي لكنه لم يغب.
صديقsadîq
friend
يi
my / me (after a preposition)
هhu
his / him (object) / it (dummy pronoun after لأن)
لكنlâkin
Questions & Answers about تأخر صديقي لكنه لم يغب.
Why is the verb يغب missing its middle vowel instead of being يغيب?
This is exactly what happens to hollow verbs in the jussive mood! The negative word لم makes the following verb jussive, which gives the final letter a sukun (no vowel). If we kept the long vowel in يغيب, we would have two vowelless sounds in a row. To fix this, Arabic drops the weak middle letter, leaving us with يغب (yaghib).
If يغب is a present tense verb, why is it translated as 'was not absent'?
The negative word لم forces the verb into the present tense form, but it flips the meaning of the phrase to the past tense! So لم يغب translates as the past-tense negative 'he did not go absent' or 'he was not absent'.
Why does لكن have a pronoun attached to it in لكنه?
The word لكن (but) is part of a grammar family known as the sisters of inna. When the subject immediately following it is a pronoun like 'he', it must attach directly to the word as a suffix. So instead of saying لكن هو, we attach the 'he' suffix to make لكنه (but he).
Is تأخر a verb or an adjective here?
It is a past tense verb! While English says 'was late' using the verb 'to be' plus an adjective, Arabic uses the dedicated verb تأخر which means 'he was late' or 'he delayed'.