Question 1

The word حسب (hasaba) means "according to" here. How does it affect the grammar of the word that follows it?

Accepted Answer

It behaves like the first word in an Idafa (a possessive phrase). Because of this, the following noun الموظف (the employee) must be in the genitive case (majrur). If you were pronouncing the full grammatical endings, it would end with a kasra (i): حَسَبِ المُوَظَّفِ.

Question 2

Why does the word for "closed", مغلق (mughlaq), start with a مـ (m-)?

Accepted Answer

It is a passive participle derived from the Form IV verb أغلق (aghlaqa), meaning "to close". For verbs in Forms II to X, you create the passive participle (the thing receiving the action) by starting with مُـ (mu-) and placing a short "a" vowel (fatha) before the final root letter. So مغلق literally means "closed" (by someone).

Question 3

Is there a pattern behind the word المطعم (al-mat'am) for "the restaurant"?

Accepted Answer

Yes! It is a "noun of place". In Arabic, you can often take a basic three-letter root and add a مَـ (ma-) to the beginning to describe the place where that action happens. Here, the root ط ع م relates to food and eating, so مطعم is "the place of eating", or a restaurant.

Question 4

Does اليوم (al-yawm) mean "the day" or "today" in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

While it literally translates to "the day" (and could mean that in other sentences, like "the day is beautiful"), here it acts as an adverb of time meaning "today". When used this way at the end of a sentence, it takes the accusative case (mansub) and would end with a fatha (a) if fully vocalized: اليَوْمَ (al-yawma).

حسب الموظف، المطعم مغلق اليوم.

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