Breakdown of قولي للشرطي إنك ضائعة.
الal
the
كka
your / you (object)
لli
for, to (attached)
ضائعdâ'i'
lost
شرطيshurtiyy
policeman
قالqâla
to say
إنinna
indeed / truly / that (after قال)
Questions & Answers about قولي للشرطي إنك ضائعة.
Why is the command قولي instead of قل?
The sentence is addressed to a female, which is shown by the feminine command suffix ي attached to the verb. For a male, you would use the masculine command قل. Notice that the middle letter و comes back in the feminine form because the final consonant is no longer vowelless, avoiding a clash of two unvowelled letters.
Why do we use إنك instead of أنك for 'that you'?
In Arabic grammar, after any form of the verb قال (to say), you must always use إن instead of أن. Even though أن usually connects sentences to mean 'that', reporting what someone says always forces the use of إن. The ك is the attached pronoun for 'you' (feminine).
What happened to the 'alif' in the word للشرطي?
The word is a combination of the preposition لـ (to) and the definite noun الشرطي (the policeman). Whenever the preposition لـ attaches to a word starting with the definite article الـ, the ا (alif) drops out of the spelling completely.
Why is the word for 'lost' written as ضائعة with a feminine ending?
It must match the gender of the person it describes. Since the speaker is telling a female what to do (shown by قولي and إنك), the adjective for 'lost' must also be in its feminine form, taking the taa marbuta (ة) at the end. For a male, it would be ضائع.
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