Question 1

Why does the verb أخلت drop its final root letter?

Accepted Answer

The root of this verb is خ ل و, and in Form IV (which usually means causing something to happen) it becomes أخلى (to empty or evacuate). Because the subject الشرطة (the police) is feminine, we add the feminine past-tense suffix ـت. When a verb ending in a weak letter like alif maqSura gets this suffix, the weak letter is dropped to avoid having two unvoweled consonants in a row, leaving us with أخلت.

Question 2

Does الشرطة refer to a single police officer or the whole police force?

Accepted Answer

Here, الشرطة is a collective noun meaning "the police force" as a whole. Even though it refers to a group of people, it ends with a feminine taa marbuuTa (ة) and is treated grammatically as a feminine singular noun. That is why the verb أخلت is in the feminine singular form.

Question 3

The word المبنى (the building) is the direct object. Why doesn't it have an accusative (mansub) case ending?

Accepted Answer

Words that end in a fixed alif maqSura (the letter ى that sounds like an "a") do not change their endings to show case. Even though المبنى is the direct object and is grammatically in the accusative case, the ending remains invisible because you cannot pronounce a vowel mark over an alif.

Question 4

How do the words بسبب and الدخان work together grammatically?

Accepted Answer

The phrase بسبب الدخان acts like an idafa (a possessive construction), literally translating to "by the reason of the smoke." The word بسبب is made of the preposition بـ (by/with) and the noun سبب (reason). Because الدخان (the smoke) is the second part of this construction, it must be in the genitive case (majrur), meaning it takes a kasra ("i") ending if fully pronounced.

أخلت الشرطة المبنى بسبب الدخان.

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