Breakdown of الحراس الصارمون لا يهتمون بشيء غير المظهر.
الal
the
شيءshay'
thing
لاlâ
not (with present verb)
حارسhâris
guard
غيرghayr
not, un- (before an adjective); other than
اهتم بihtamma bi
to care about
صارمsârim
strict
مظهرmazhar
appearance
Questions & Answers about الحراس الصارمون لا يهتمون بشيء غير المظهر.
What should the case ending on the exception particle غير be in this sentence?
Because the sentence is negative (لا) and includes the general category being excepted from (بشيء), غير has two grammatical options. It can take the accusative case of exception (غيرَ, ġayra), or it can copy the case of the category word. Since شيء is genitive after the preposition بـ, copying it makes غير genitive (غيرِ, ġayri). Both options are perfectly correct here.
Why is المظهر always in the genitive case here?
Why does الصارمون end in a regular plural suffix when الحراس is a broken plural?
Adjectives must match their nouns in gender and number. الحراس (guards) refers to rational human males, so it requires a masculine plural adjective. Even though the noun itself forms a broken plural, its adjective simply takes the standard sound masculine plural suffix ـون (-ūn) to match it in number and case.
Why is the preposition بـ attached to شيء?
The preposition is required by the verb. The Form VIII verb اهتم (to care about / be interested in) always pairs with the preposition بـ to introduce the object of interest. Here, it attaches to شيء (a thing) to mean care about anything.
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