Word
كانت سوف تأكل كل الطعام البحري خلا السمك.
Meaning
She was going to eat all the seafood save fish.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of كانت سوف تأكل كل الطعام البحري خلا السمك.
الal
the
طعامta'âm
food
أكلakala
to eat
سوفsawfa
will
Questions & Answers about كانت سوف تأكل كل الطعام البحري خلا السمك.
Since خلا isn't preceded by ما, what case ending does السمك take here?
It can actually take one of two cases! Because خلا appears bare (without ما), it can be treated either as a past tense verb, which puts السمك in the accusative case (السمكَ), or as a preposition, which puts it in the genitive case (السمكِ). Both are perfectly correct.
If I wanted to say ما خلا السمك, how would that change the grammar?
Adding ما turns خلا strictly into a verb. Because prepositions cannot follow ما, you lose the choice of case. السمك would have to be the direct object of that verb, so it must take the accusative case (السمكَ).
How does the combination كانت سوف تأكل work to mean 'she was going to eat'?
This structure expresses the 'future in the past.' You take the past tense of 'to be' (كانت) and follow it with a standard future-tense phrase: the future particle سوف plus the present tense verb تأكل. Together, they literally mean 'she was (in a state where she) will eat.'
Why does كل take an accusative ending here, while الطعام is genitive?