Breakdown of هل درست الهندسة في الجامعة؟
الal
the
هلhal
is / are (question marker)
فيfî
in / about, regarding
درسdarasa
to study
جامعةjâmi'a
university
هندسةhandasa
engineering
Questions & Answers about هل درست الهندسة في الجامعة؟
The lesson is about making Nisba adjectives from words with a Taa' Marboota. How would I turn الجامعة (the university) into the adjective for university-related?
You must drop the Taa' Marboota (ة) completely before adding the Nisba suffix. The base word جامعة drops the ة and takes the suffix ـيّ to become جامعي (masculine) or جامعيّة (feminine).
Does the same rule apply if I want to make an adjective out of الهندسة (engineering)?
Yes, the exact same rule applies! You drop the Taa' Marboota (ة) from هندسة and add the suffix to get هندسي or هندسية (engineering or architectural).
The translation says 'Did she study', but there is no word for 'she' in the Arabic sentence. How do we know who is studying?
The subject is built directly into the verb. The base past-tense verb is درس (he studied). To make it 'she studied', we add the feminine ending ـت to make it درست. You do not need to add the pronoun هي (she) unless you want to add special emphasis.
How do we pronounce the transition between درست and الهندسة?
Normally, درست ends with a silent letter (a sukoon on the ت). However, because الهندسة starts with the ال prefix, reading them together would put two silent consonants right next to each other. To bridge them, the silent ت gets a short 'i' helper vowel, so it is spoken aloud as 'darasati l-handasa'.
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