Learn Arabic (Modern Standard): لماذا تلغي القناة البرنامج الآن؟ - Why is the channel cancelling the program now?

تلغي is the present tense for she cancels. Its base past tense form is ألغى (he cancelled). Because it ends in a weak letter (the Alif Maqsura, ى), it is called a defective verb. If we conjugate it for she in the past tense, the weak Alif drops out entirely, making it ألغت (she cancelled).

Why does the verb تلغي start with the letter ت?

The verb starts with ت because its subject is القناة (the channel). Since القناة ends with a Ta Marbuta (ة), it is grammatically feminine. Therefore, we must use the she form of the present tense verb.

Why is the first vowel in تلغي (tulghii) an u sound instead of an a sound?

تلغي belongs to a specific verb pattern known as Form IV. In Arabic, present tense verbs that belong to Forms II, III, and IV always start with a Damma (an u sound) on the prefix letter, rather than a Fatha (an a sound) like simpler verbs.

How do we know that القناة is doing the cancelling and not البرنامج?

In standard Arabic sentence structure, the subject usually comes immediately after the verb. Here, القناة follows تلغي, so it is the subject doing the action. The object receiving the action, البرنامج (the program), comes next.