Questions & Answers about سألتني ضابطة الهجرة أي جواز سفر أحمل.
Why is the present tense verb أحمل used here for a past event?
In English, we often backshift tenses in reported speech (e.g., 'she asked what I was carrying'). In Arabic, indirect questions retain the tense of the original direct question. The officer's original question was in the present tense ('Which passport do you carry?'), so أحمل stays in the present tense.
What case ending does أي (which) take here and why?
It takes the accusative case, pronounced as أيَّ (ayya). This is because it functions as the direct object of the verb أحمل (I carry), even though it has been moved to the front of the clause.
Why are the words جواز and سفر in the genitive case here?
The word أي always forms an idafa (genitive construction) with the noun following it. In this case, it is followed by the compound noun جواز سفر (passport), which is an idafa itself. Therefore, both words take the genitive case as part of this chain: أيَّ جوازِ سفرٍ.
How is the word سألتني constructed?
It consists of the base verb سأل (he asked), plus the feminine marker ـت because the subject ضابطة (officer) is feminine, making سألت (she asked). The suffix ـني is the object pronoun 'me' (including the protective 'noon' sound), creating 'she asked me'.