Breakdown of قال الزبون إن السيارة المستعملة مضمون محركها.
الal
the
سيارةsayyâra
car
هاhâ
her / her (object) / it (feminine)
محركmuharrik
engine
Questions & Answers about قال الزبون إن السيارة المستعملة مضمون محركها.
Why is the word for engine (محرك) in the nominative case here?
It acts as the proxy subject (نائب فاعل) for the passive participle مضمون (guaranteed). Just like a passive verb, an active passive participle takes a proxy subject in the nominative case. You can think of the phrase as meaning 'whose engine is guaranteed.' Therefore, it takes a damma: محركُها.
Why is مضمون masculine when the sentence is about a car (السيارة), which is feminine?
Even though مضمون functions as the predicate telling us about the car, it directly governs the engine (محرك), which is a masculine noun. When a participle governs a noun that follows it (like a proxy subject), it matches the gender of that following noun, not the preceding one.
What case are the words السيارة المستعملة in, and why?
They are in the accusative case (mansub). The word السيارة is the subject of إن (the 'ism inna'), which must always be accusative. The word المستعملة is an adjective modifying it, so it copies that accusative case, taking a fatha.
Why do we use إن (inna) instead of أن (anna) for 'that'?
In Modern Standard Arabic, the particle إن is strictly used after the verb قال (to say) and its conjugations to introduce the content of speech. In almost all other contexts where 'that' joins two clauses, you would use أن.