Breakdown of رقي النظام لأنه كان بطيئا.
الal
the
بطيءbatee'
slow
هhu
his / him (object) / it (dummy pronoun after لأن)
لأنli'anna
because
Questions & Answers about رقي النظام لأنه كان بطيئا.
What form is رقي and how do we know it is passive?
The verb رُقِّيَ (ruqqiya) is the passive of the Form II verb رَقَّى (to upgrade). You can spot the past tense passive in Form II by its vowel pattern: it starts with a damma on the first letter and has a kasra under the middle doubled letter, making the pattern فُعِّلَ (fu''ila).
The active Form II verb رقّى ends in an alif maqsura, so why does the passive رقي end in a regular ya?
Great catch! When building the past tense passive for Form II, the pattern is فُعِّلَ (fu''ila), which puts a kasra (an i-sound) on the middle root letter. Since the final weak letter must harmonize with the kasra right before it, the alif maqsura changes into a regular ya (ي).
How do the pieces of لأنه fit together to mean 'because it'?
It is made of three pieces: the preposition لِـ (for), the conjunction أنَّ (that), and the attached pronoun ـهُ (it, referring to the system). Literally meaning 'for that it', this combination لأنَّ is the standard way to say 'because' when followed by a noun or pronoun.
Why is the word for 'slow' written as بطيئا with an extra alif at the end?
This is because it follows the verb كان (was). In Arabic, the predicate of كان (the word that tells us what the subject was) must be in the accusative case. Since بطيئا is indefinite, it takes the 'an' ending (tanween fatha), which usually requires adding a silent alif at the end of the word.