Breakdown of بنى المقاول هذا المصنع في عام ألف وثمانمئة واثني عشر.
الal
the
وwa
and
فيfî
in / about, regarding
هذاhâdhâ
this (m)
Questions & Answers about بنى المقاول هذا المصنع في عام ألف وثمانمئة واثني عشر.
Why are there so many "and"s (و) in the year 1812?
In Arabic, large numbers like years are read from largest to smallest, and every chunk is connected by the word "and" (و). So, 1812 is literally said as "a thousand and eight hundred and twelve" (ألف وثمانمئة واثني عشر).
Why is the word for twelve اثني عشر here instead of اثنا عشر?
The number twelve changes based on its role in the sentence. Because it comes after في عام (in the year), the whole year takes the "genitive" case (the case used after prepositions). The "two" part of twelve acts like a dual word, so it changes its ending from an "aa" sound (اثنا) to an "ay" sound (اثني) to match this grammatical case.
Why does the word for eight hundred, ثمانمئة, look like one big word?
In Arabic, the hundreds from 300 to 900 are usually written as a single combined word. It glues together a short form of the number eight (ثمان) and the word for hundred (مئة) to make ثمانمئة.
I remember هذا means "this". Why does المصنع (factory) need to have ال attached to it?
When you want to say "this factory", the noun must have the definite article ال attached to it. If you left it off and just wrote هذا مصنع, it would become a complete sentence meaning "This is a factory."