Breakdown of أبي قاض، وعمي محام.
وwa
and
أبabun
father
يi
my / me (after a preposition)
قاضqâdin
judge
محامmuhaamin
lawyer
عم'amm
paternal uncle
Questions & Answers about أبي قاض، وعمي محام.
Why do the words for judge and lawyer lose their final 'yaa' (ي) here and become قاض and محام?
These words belong to a special group called defective nouns. When a defective noun is indefinite (has no 'al-') and is in the nominative or genitive case, its final ي is dropped. Because they act as the predicates in this sentence ('is a judge', 'is a lawyer'), they are in the nominative case, so the ي disappears.
Doesn't the double kasra (tanwin kasra) on these words mean they are in the genitive case?
Normally, a double kasra indicates the genitive case (like when a word follows a preposition). However, for these specific defective nouns, the double kasra is just a phonetic placeholder to show that the final ي was deleted. Even though they look genitive, قاض and محام are grammatically in the nominative case here.
How do you pronounce the endings of قاض and محام in this sentence?
Because of the placeholder double kasra, they are pronounced with an '-in' ending. You would read them aloud as qadin and muhamin.
If I wanted to say 'the judge' and 'the lawyer' instead, would the spelling change?
Yes! Because the rule that drops the final ي only applies to indefinite nouns, making them definite brings the letter back. If you added 'al-' (the), they would become القاضي (the judge) and المحامي (the lawyer).
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