Breakdown of نجا الولد، ونجت أمه أيضا.
الal
the
وwa
and
ولدwalad
boy
أيضاaydan
also
هhu
his / him (object) / it (dummy pronoun after لأن)
أمumm
mother
نجاnajâ
to survive
Questions & Answers about نجا الولد، ونجت أمه أيضا.
Why does the verb change from نجا to نجت? Shouldn't the feminine form just add a taa to make it نجات?
نجا (he survived) is a weak verb because it ends in a long vowel letter (the alif). When adding the feminine ending ـت (-at), Arabic drops that weak alif to avoid an awkward clash of sounds. This is why it becomes نجت (najat) instead of نجات.
Why does the verb come before the person who survived in both halves of the sentence?
Arabic strongly prefers to start sentences with a verb. This is called a verbal sentence. It is much more natural to say نجا الولد (literally: survived the boy) and نجت أمه (survived his mother) than to put the subject first.
How does the word أمه translate to his mother?
It is made of two parts joined together: أم means mother, and the attached suffix ـه means his. In Arabic, possessive pronouns attach directly to the very end of the noun they belong to.
Why does the word أيضا have two small diagonal lines above the final letter?
Those two lines are a pronunciation marker called tanween. They add an 'an' sound to the end of the word, making it sound like 'aydan'. This word is a fixed adverb meaning also or too.
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