Questions & Answers about هم مشوا إلى الدرج ليبحثوا عن القفاز.
Why is 'they walked' written as مشوا and where did the final Alif Maqsura from مشى go?
مشى (he walked) is a defective verb because its root ends in a weak letter. When we conjugate it for هم (they), this weak letter is completely dropped before adding the masculine plural ending وا. The letter right before it keeps its original short 'a' vowel (fatha), so it is pronounced مشَوْا (mashaw), not 'mashuu'.
Why does ليبحثوا (to look) end in a silent Alif instead of a Noon (ن)?
The base present tense for 'they look' is يبحثون. However, the prefix لِـ (li-) here means 'in order to'. This prefix changes the verb into the subjunctive mood. For plural verbs ending in ون, this means dropping the Noon (ن) and replacing it with a silent Alif (ا), resulting in ليبحثوا.
Why is the preposition عن used after the verb here?
In Arabic, the verb بحث (to search or look) pairs with the preposition عن (for/about) to mean 'looking for'. It is a set phrase, so you will almost always see يبحث عن together when someone is trying to find a missing object like the glove.
Can الدرج also mean 'the stairs'? How do we know it means 'drawer' here?
Yes! It depends on the short vowels, which are usually unwritten. دُرْج (durj) means drawer, while دَرَج (daraj) means stairs or steps. Without vowels, you have to use the context of the sentence to figure it out. Since they are looking for a small item like a glove, 'drawer' is the intended meaning here.