Breakdown of هذا هو التأخير الأطول في وقت الذروة.
الal
the
فيfî
in / about, regarding
هوhuwa
he / his / him (attached)
هذاhâdhâ
this (m)
وقتwaqt
time
أطولatwal
longer / taller
تأخيرta'khîr
delay
ذروةdhirwa
peak (climax, apex)
Questions & Answers about هذا هو التأخير الأطول في وقت الذروة.
Why do we need the word هو here? Couldn't we just say هذا التأخير?
If you just said هذا التأخير, it would translate as a noun phrase: 'this delay'. Because there is no present-tense verb for 'to be' in Arabic, placing a definite noun directly after a demonstrative like هذا merges them into one phrase. To break them apart and form the complete sentence 'This is the delay', you insert the pronoun هو to act as a separator.
Why does the superlative الأطول (the longest) have the definite article الـ?
Words on the comparative/superlative pattern (like أطول) take the definite article when they act as a superlative adjective for a specific noun. Here, الأطول agrees with the definite noun التأخير to mean 'the longest delay'. If you wanted to use it as a comparative ('longer than'), you would drop the الـ and use أطول من.
How exactly does وقت الذروة mean 'rush hour'?
This is an iḍāfa (possessive construct) that literally translates to 'the time of the peak' or 'peak time'. The word الذروة means 'summit', 'peak', or 'climax'. Modern Standard Arabic uses this exact phrase to express the English concept of rush hour.
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