Breakdown of مشينا في الرمل ساعة، والآن ساقاي متعبتان.
الal
the
وwa
and
الآنal-ân
now
فيfî
in / about, regarding
متعبmuta'ab
tired
يi
my / me (after a preposition)
ساعةsâ'a
watch / hour
ساقsâq
leg
مشىmashâ
to walk / to go, to move along (of a vehicle)
رملraml
sand
Questions & Answers about مشينا في الرمل ساعة، والآن ساقاي متعبتان.
Why is there no Arabic word for 'for' before ساعة (an hour)?
In Arabic, you often don't need a preposition to express the duration of an action. Instead, you just use the noun for the time period. Grammatically, ساعة acts as an adverb of time indicating how long the walking lasted, which takes the accusative case.
How is the word ساقاي (my legs) formed? I know the dual normally ends in ان (-aan).
The singular word is ساق (leg), and its dual is ساقان (two legs). An important rule in Arabic is that when you attach a possessive pronoun like ي (my) to a dual noun, the ن (noon) at the end drops off. So, ساقان plus ي becomes ساقاي.
Why is the adjective متعبتان (tired) feminine when the word ساق (leg) doesn't have a feminine ending?
In Arabic, body parts that come in naturally occurring pairs (like eyes, hands, and legs) are usually treated as grammatically feminine. Because ساقاي is both dual and feminine, the adjective describing it must match, giving us the dual feminine متعبتان instead of the masculine متعبان.
Why does the verb مشينا (we walked) have a ي (yaa) in the middle?
The base verb 'to walk' is مشى (he walked). It is a 'defective' verb because its root ends in a weak letter. When attaching past tense suffixes that start with a consonant, like the نا (we) suffix, that underlying ي from the root reveals itself.
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