Breakdown of أشم هذا العطر منذ ساعة.
الal
the
هذاhâdhâ
this (m)
ساعةsâ'a
watch / hour
شمshamma
to smell
عطر'itr
perfume
منذmundhu
since / for
Questions & Answers about أشم هذا العطر منذ ساعة.
Why does the Arabic sentence use the present tense أشم (I smell) when the English translation says "I have been smelling"?
In Arabic, to express an action that started in the past and is still happening right now, you use the present tense verb along with منذ (since/for). English uses "have been doing", but Arabic simply says "I do [action] since/for [time]".
Does منذ mean "for" or "since" here?
In this sentence, it translates to "for" because it is followed by a length of time: ساعة (an hour). If it were followed by a specific starting point in time, like منذ الصباح (since the morning), it would translate to "since".
Why does العطر (the perfume) have the word "the" (ال) attached to it if we are saying "this perfume"?
In Arabic, when you want to say "this [noun]", the noun following "this" (هذا) must have the definite article ال (the). If you just said هذا عطر without ال, it would mean "This is a perfume" as a complete sentence.
I remember ساعة meaning "clock" or "watch". How do we know it means "an hour" in this sentence?
The word ساعة can mean "clock", "watch", "hour", or "o'clock". You can tell the meaning from the context. Because it comes right after منذ (since/for), which measures time, it clearly means the unit of time ("an hour") rather than a physical object.
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