Breakdown of عندما وصلت الشرطة، لم يكن اللص قد ارتكب الجريمة.
الal
the
شرطةshurta
police
كانkâna
to be
عندما'indamâ
when (not in questions)
جريمةjarîma
crime
قدqad
already
لمlam
did not
وصلwasala
to arrive
لصliss
thief
ارتكبirtakaba
to commit
Questions & Answers about عندما وصلت الشرطة، لم يكن اللص قد ارتكب الجريمة.
How do we form the negative past perfect in this sentence?
In Arabic, the past perfect is usually formed using كان قد + past tense verb. To make it negative, we negate the helping verb كان using لم. Since لم forces the following verb into the present tense, كان becomes يكن. Together, لم يكن قد ارتكب gives us the meaning "had not committed".
Why is اللص (the thief) placed right in the middle of the verb phrase لم يكن قد ارتكب?
When you have a compound verb structure (a helping verb + a main verb), the subject usually goes right after the helping verb. Here, اللص sits directly after the helping verb لم يكن and before the main action قد ارتكب.
Why does the first verb وصلت have a feminine ending, while يكن is masculine?
The verb must agree with its subject. The subject of وصلت is الشرطة (the police), which is a feminine singular noun in Arabic, so the verb takes the feminine ending ـت. The subject for the rest of the sentence is اللص (the thief, a masculine noun), so يكن and ارتكب are masculine.
The English translation says "had not yet committed". Which Arabic word means "yet"?
There isn't a specific word for "yet" in this sentence! The structure لم يكن قد + past verb literally means "he had not already [done something]." In English, it is much more natural to translate this negative concept as "had not yet." If you wanted to emphasize "yet," you could add the word بعد at the very end of the sentence, but the meaning is clear without it.
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