Breakdown of أخو الخباز مدير ممتاز.
الal
the
مديرmudîr
manager
أخakh
brother
ممتازmumtâz
excellent
خبازkhabbâz
baker
Questions & Answers about أخو الخباز مدير ممتاز.
Why is there a و at the end of أخو instead of just writing أخ?
أخ (brother) is one of the special 'Five Nouns' in Arabic. When these nouns are the first part of a possession phrase (Idafa) and act as the subject of the sentence, they take a long vowel و at the end to show their subject (nominative) case. So 'brother of...' becomes أخو.
The English translation says 'The baker's brother', so why doesn't أخو have ال (al-) at the beginning?
This is an Idafa (possessive construction) literally meaning 'brother of the baker'. The golden rule of Idafa is that the first word (أخو) can never have ال. It automatically acts as a definite noun because the word that owns it, الخباز (the baker), is definite.
How would أخو change if it wasn't the subject, like if the sentence was 'I saw the baker's brother'?
If it were the object receiving the action, the vowel letter would change! Instead of the subject marker و, the Five Nouns take an ا (alif) when they are the object. So it would become أخا الخباز (akha al-khabbaz).
Why are مدير and ممتاز both written without ال (al-)?
They form the second half of the sentence: 'an excellent manager'. Because it is an excellent manager rather than the excellent manager, both the noun (مدير) and the adjective describing it (ممتاز) must be indefinite, meaning they do not take ال.
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