Breakdown of هذا السعر غير معقول!
الal
the
هذاhâdhâ
this (m)
سعرsi'r
price
غير معقولghayru ma'qûlin
unbelievable!
Questions & Answers about هذا السعر غير معقول!
Why does هذا السعر mean "This price" instead of "This is the price"?
In Arabic, when a demonstrative pronoun like هذا (this) is followed directly by a definite noun (a word with الـ), they link together to form a phrase: "This price." If you wanted to say "This is a price," you would drop the الـ and say هذا سعر. To say "This is the price," you need to insert a pronoun to break them apart: هذا هو السعر.
Why is غير used here instead of a negation verb like ليس (is not)?
The word غير is used to negate nouns and adjectives directly, functioning very much like the English prefixes "un-", "in-", or "non-". While ليس negates the verb or the predicate of a sentence, using غير right before معقول creates a single combined concept: "unbelievable" or "unreasonable."
If I were reading this with full vowel endings (harakat), what case ending would معقول take?
It would take the genitive case ending (kasratayn), making it sound like غيرُ معقولٍ (ghayru ma'qūlin). This is because the word غير actually acts as the first part of an "idafa" (construct/possession phrase), which forces the word immediately following it into the genitive case.
The translation says "unbelievable," but what is the literal meaning of معقول?
The word معقول comes from the root ع-ق-ل, which has to do with the mind, intellect, or reason (for example, عقل means "mind"). It literally translates to "reasonable," "logical," or "plausible." So, غير معقول literally means "unreasonable" or "illogical," which is the natural way to say something is "unbelievable" or absurd in Arabic.
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