Breakdown of عظم الكتف أكبر من عظم الإصبع.
الal
the
منmin
than
أكبرakbar
bigger
عظمaẓm
bone
كتفkatif
shoulder
إصبعisba'
finger
Questions & Answers about عظم الكتف أكبر من عظم الإصبع.
How do we know أكبر means "larger" and not "the largest"?
The word أكبر follows a specific pattern that Arabic uses for both comparatives (larger) and superlatives (largest). You know it means "larger" here because it is followed by the preposition من, meaning "than".
Why doesn't the first word, عظم (bone), have ال (the) on it?
The phrase عظم الكتف is an "idafa" (a possessive construction), literally translating to "the bone of the shoulder". A strict rule of the idafa is that the first noun never takes ال. It gets its definite "the" meaning automatically from the second noun, الكتف, which does have ال.
Why is there no word for "is" in this sentence?
Arabic doesn't use a "to be" verb for present-tense statements. This is a standard "nominal sentence" consisting of a subject (عظم الكتف) and a predicate (أكبر من عظم الإصبع). The "is" is simply implied by placing these two parts together in this order.
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