Breakdown of كلما قرأت الطالبة كتابا، كلما تغير تفكيرها.
الal
the
كتابkitâb
book
هاhâ
her / her (object) / it (feminine)
قرأqara'a
to read
طالبةtâliba
student
تغيرtaghayyara
to change (intransitive)
كلماkullamâ
the more
تفكيرtafkîr
thinking
Questions & Answers about كلما قرأت الطالبة كتابا، كلما تغير تفكيرها.
The English translation says "reads" and "changes" in the present tense, but the Arabic uses past tense verbs (قرأت and تغير). Why is that?
The word كلما demands a past tense verb immediately following it, even when describing an ongoing habit or general truth. Because this sentence uses a proportional comparative structure, both the first verb (قرأت) and the second verb (تغير) must be in the past tense to be grammatically correct.
Is it strictly necessary to repeat كلما in the second half of the sentence?
Actually, no! While repeating كلما is very common in Modern Standard Arabic to mirror the English "the more... the more" structure, traditional Arabic grammar prefers using it only once at the beginning. You will often see sentences like كلما قرأت الطالبة كتابا، تغير تفكيرها which means exactly the same thing.
The verb تغير means "changes". How does it relate to the common word غير (other/different)?
They share the same root letters. تغير is a Form V verb, which usually expresses the result of an action or a reflexive action. It means "to change itself" or "to undergo change". It builds upon the meaning of the root by showing that the subject (her thinking) is experiencing the change.
Why does the verb تغير come before تفكيرها (her thinking) in the second clause?
Arabic generally prefers a Verb-Subject word order. The second half of this sentence is its own clause, so it starts with the verb تغير. The subject of that verb is تفكيرها (her thinking). Since the noun تفكير (thinking) is masculine, the verb takes the masculine singular form.
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