Question 1

Why does the sentence use أجرى for "took"?

Accepted Answer

The verb أجرى literally means "to conduct", "to carry out", or "to run" (a process). In Arabic, you don't use the verb "to take" (like أخذ) for medical tests or x-rays. Instead, doctors "conduct" them, which makes أجرى the natural choice here.

Question 2

Why is the word أشعة used for "an x-ray"? Isn't that a plural word?

Accepted Answer

Yes! أشعة is technically the plural of شُعاع (ray or beam). However, in modern medical contexts, this plural form is used as a fixed noun to mean "an x-ray", "x-rays", or the field of "radiology" in general.

Question 3

What happened to the spelling in للضرس?

Accepted Answer

This is a spelling rule you might have seen early on but is easy to forget. It's formed by adding the preposition لـ (for/to) to the definite noun الضرس (the molar). When لـ attaches to a word starting with الـ (the), the alif is dropped in writing entirely, leaving two lams connected together: لـ + الضرس becomes للضرس.

Question 4

Why does the Arabic say الذي فيه ("which in it") instead of just "which has"?

Accepted Answer

Arabic relative clauses require a "returning pronoun" when referring back to a prepositional object. You literally have to say "the molar which [there is] a cavity in it" (الذي فيه تسوس). Furthermore, Arabic doesn't have a direct verb for "to have", so it uses prepositions like في (in) to express that a cavity exists inside the tooth.

أجرى الطبيب أشعة للضرس الذي فيه تسوس.

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