Breakdown of أعجبتني الشقة تشطيبها.
الal
the
هاhâ
her / her (object) / it (feminine)
شقةshaqqa
apartment
نيni
me
Questions & Answers about أعجبتني الشقة تشطيبها.
Instead of saying أعجبني تشطيب الشقة (The apartment's finishing pleased me), why does this sentence use أعجبتني الشقة تشطيبها?
This is an example of the apposition of an attribute (بدل الاشتمال). Instead of making the finishing the main subject, Arabic often emphasizes the whole object first (الشقة), followed by the specific attribute you liked (تشطيبها). The pronoun ها is required to link the attribute back to the apartment.
What grammatical case does تشطيبها take here?
It takes the nominative case (مرفوع), so it is pronounced تشطيبُها (tashṭībuhā). An apposition noun (بدل) always copies the grammatical case of the noun it replaces or clarifies. Since الشقة is the subject of the verb and is nominative, تشطيبها must also be nominative.
Why is the verb أعجبتني in the feminine form if the actual thing I liked, تشطيب (finishing), is masculine?
The verb always agrees with its grammatical subject. Here, the primary subject is the feminine noun الشقة (the apartment). Even though the sentence narrows the focus to the masculine noun تشطيبها, the verb's gender was already locked in by the main subject. If you used the standard possessive construction (أعجبني تشطيب الشقة), the verb would be masculine to match تشطيب.
What kind of word is تشطيب and what does it literally mean here?