Breakdown of وجدت العالمة المكوك مفيدا.
الal
the
وجدwajada
to find / to exist, there is (passive)
عالمâlim
scientist
مفيدmufîd
useful
مكوكmakkûk
shuttle
Questions & Answers about وجدت العالمة المكوك مفيدا.
Why does the word for useful, مفيدا, have the "an" ending (tanween fatha)?
In Arabic, the verb وجد (to find) belongs to a special group of verbs that take two direct objects when it means "to consider or find something to be a certain way". The first object is المكوك (the shuttle) and the second object is مفيدا (useful). Both objects are put into the accusative case, which is why مفيدا takes the extra alif and the "an" sound.
The scientist, العالمة, is feminine, so why is the word for useful, مفيدا, masculine?
The word مفيدا (useful) describes the shuttle, المكوك, which is a masculine noun. It is the shuttle that is useful, not the scientist, so it must match the gender of the shuttle.
How do we pronounce the end of the verb وجدت when it connects to the next word?
The verb وجدت normally ends with a silent consonant (a sukuun on the letter taa). However, because the next word العالمة starts with the "al-" prefix, we would get two silent consonants in a row. To fix this, we pronounce a helper vowel "i" (kasra) on the taa, making it sound like "wajadati-l-aalimatu".
Could I use the word أن (that) to say "found that the shuttle is useful" instead?
Yes, you could say وجدت العالمة أن المكوك مفيد (The scientist found that the shuttle is useful). In that case, أن makes the shuttle accusative, but مفيد would end in a nominative "un" sound because it acts as the predicate of the "anna" clause. The sentence shown here is just a shorter, very common way to express the same idea using two direct objects.
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