Questions & Answers about نزلنا إلى واد عميق.
Why is the word for valley written as واد instead of وادي here?
The word for valley belongs to a special group of words (defective nouns) that normally end in a long ي (yaa). When nouns like this are indefinite (without "al-" at the beginning) and come after a preposition, they drop their final ي. Because it follows the preposition إلى, it drops the ي and is written simply as واد.
If واد drops its final letter, how do we pronounce its ending?
When the final ي is dropped, the last letter takes a double kasra (kasratayn) under it as a spelling rule. So, it is pronounced as "wādin" instead of "wādī". This ending shows that the word is indefinite and compensates for the missing letter.
Does the adjective عميق (deep) match the grammatical case of واد?
Yes. Adjectives must match the noun's grammatical case, not just its exact spelling. Since واد is in the genitive case because of the preposition إلى, the adjective عميق must also be genitive. It takes a standard genitive ending (pronounced "ʿamīqin"), so the two words agree perfectly in grammar.
The English translation says "into". Why does the Arabic use إلى (to) instead of في (in)?
The verb نزل (to descend or go down) is a verb of motion. In Arabic, when you move towards a destination, you typically use إلى (to or towards). Using في here would imply you were already stationary inside the valley when the action happened, rather than entering it from above.