Breakdown of استرجعت الشرطة جميع الممتلكات والمجوهرات التي سرقها اللص.
الal
the
وwa
and
هاhâ
her / her (object) / it (feminine)
سرقsaraqa
to steal
شرطةshurta
police
التيallatî
the one who / which (f)
جميعjamî'
all / everyone (collectively)
لصliss
thief
استرجعistarja'a
to recover
ممتلكاتmumtalakât
belongings
مجوهراتmujawharât
jewelry
Questions & Answers about استرجعت الشرطة جميع الممتلكات والمجوهرات التي سرقها اللص.
Why is there a ـها attached to the end of سرقها when the English translation just says "that the thief stole"?
This is the resumptive pronoun (الضمير العائد) you are currently learning about! In Arabic, relative clauses (clauses starting with words like التي) usually require a pronoun inside them that refers back to the noun being described. While English just says "...that the thief stole," Arabic literally says "...that the thief stole it." English drops this object pronoun, but Arabic requires it.
Both "belongings" (الممتلكات) and "jewelry" (المجوهرات) are plural nouns. Why do we use the feminine singular relative pronoun التي and the feminine singular suffix ـها?
This is a great refresher on the non-human plural rule. In Arabic, any plural noun that doesn't refer to humans is treated grammatically as a single female. Because "belongings" and "jewelry" are non-human plurals, both the relative pronoun التي (which/that) and the resumptive pronoun ـها (it) must be feminine singular to agree with them.
In the phrase سرقها اللص, why does اللص (the thief) come after the verb and the pronoun?
In Arabic, it is very common to attach an object pronoun directly to the verb before stating the subject. Here, سرق is the verb, ـها is the attached object pronoun ("it"), and اللص is the subject who is doing the stealing. The word order is Verb-Object-Subject. You can tell اللص is the subject by context and by its grammatical case (it would take a Damma at the end).
How does the pattern of the verb استرجعت (recovered) give us a clue about its meaning?
استرجعت is a Form X verb, which you can spot by the استـ prefix. Form X verbs often carry the meaning of "seeking," "asking for," or "retrieving" something. It comes from the root ر-ج-ع (to return). Adding the Form X prefix changes the meaning from "to return" to "to seek the return of" or "to recover." (The ـت at the very end is just the feminine marker matching الشرطة).
Why doesn't the word جميع (all) have the definite article الـ like the English translation "all the belongings"?
The phrase جميع الممتلكات is an Idafa (a genitive possession construction). In an Idafa, the first word (in this case the quantifier جميع) never takes the definite article الـ. It becomes definite automatically because the second word (الممتلكات) has the definite article.
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