Breakdown of عم تتحدث إزاء هذه المعضلة؟
الal
the
هذهhâdhihi
this (f)
تحدثtahaddatha
to talk, to speak
إزاءizâ'a
regarding / vis-à-vis
Questions & Answers about عم تتحدث إزاء هذه المعضلة؟
How is the word عم formed, and why is there no Alif at the end?
عم is a combination of the preposition عن (about) and the interrogative pronoun ما (what). When the interrogative ما attaches to a preposition, its final Alif is dropped. Also, the nun in عن assimilates into the mim of ما, giving us a shadda (مَّ).
Would the spelling change if ما wasn't a question word here?
Yes! If ما were the relative pronoun meaning "that which" (as in, "I understand what you are talking about"), the Alif is kept, spelling it as عما. Dropping the Alif to get عم only happens when it is asking a direct question.
How exactly is the preposition إزاء used here?
إزاء literally means "facing" or "opposite," but is used abstractly here to mean "regarding" or "in the face of." It acts as a spatial preposition and forces the following noun phrase into the genitive case (majrur).
What is the grammatical case of المعضلة (the dilemma) in this sentence?
It takes the genitive case (المعضلةِ). The preposition إزاء puts the demonstrative pronoun هذه into a genitive position. Since المعضلة is a definite noun directly following a demonstrative, it acts as a substitution (badal) and copies that genitive case.