Breakdown of أعطت المديرة الموظفين علاوة سخية.
الal
the
موظفmuwazzaf
employee
مديرmudîr
manager
أعطىa'tâ
to give
علاوةilâwah
raise
سخيsakhiyy
generous
Questions & Answers about أعطت المديرة الموظفين علاوة سخية.
This lesson is about verbs taking two direct objects. How does that work in this sentence?
The verb أعطت (gave) needs both a recipient and a thing given. Here, the first direct object is the recipient, الموظفين (the employees), and the second direct object is the thing given, علاوة (a raise). Unlike English, which often uses "to" (gave a raise to the employees), Arabic verbs of giving simply take both words as direct objects in the accusative case without a preposition.
Why is the word for employees written as الموظفين instead of الموظفون?
Because it acts as the first direct object of the verb, it must be in the accusative case. For regular masculine plurals, the nominative (subject) ending is ـون (-uun), but the accusative and genitive ending is ـين (-iin).
What happens to the final weak letter of the verb أعطى (he gave) when forming أعطت (she gave)?
The verb أعطى ends in a weak letter (an alif maqsurah). When we add the feminine subject marker ـت (-t), that weak ending drops out completely to prevent two unvoweled consonants from sitting next to each other. Thus, أعطى plus ـت becomes أعطت (a'tat).
Why do both علاوة (raise) and سخية (generous) have an "-an" sound at the end if you read them with full vowels?
علاوة is the second direct object of the sentence, meaning it is in the accusative case, marked here by the indefinite tanwiin fatha (-an). Because سخية is an adjective modifying the raise, it must strictly follow the noun's case, gender, and definiteness. Therefore, it also takes the accusative indefinite ending.
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