Breakdown of ظل الرضيع يبكي ساعتين.
الal
the
ساعةsâ'a
watch / hour
بكىbakâ
to cry
رضيعradî'
baby, infant
ظلdhalla
to keep on, remain (+ present verb)
Questions & Answers about ظل الرضيع يبكي ساعتين.
Why do we use ظل here instead of a regular verb for "kept"?
ظل is one of the "Sisters of Kana" (a group of verbs that act like كان). It originally means "to remain", but when followed by a present tense verb like يبكي, it expresses that an action continued uninterrupted. Together, ظل يبكي translates smoothly to "he kept crying".
Since ظل is a Sister of Kana, where is its predicate?
The predicate is the entire verb phrase يبكي (he cries). Just like with كان, the predicate doesn't have to be a single noun. A full present tense verb phrase often acts as the predicate to show exactly what the subject kept doing.
Why is the word for "two hours" ساعتين and not ساعتان?
It is in the accusative case, which uses the -ayn ending for dual nouns instead of the nominative -aan. It takes the accusative case here because it acts as an adverb of time (a word showing when or how long an action happened) indicating the duration of the crying.
Don't we need a preposition like "for" before ساعتين?
No, Arabic usually doesn't use a preposition to express "for" a certain amount of time. Simply putting the time noun in the accusative case, like ساعتين, naturally translates to "for two hours".
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