Word
كان القاضي وصيا عادلا لأبنائه.
Meaning
The judge was a fair executor for his children.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of كان القاضي وصيا عادلا لأبنائه.
الal
the
هhu
his / him (object) / it (dummy pronoun after لأن)
لli
for, to (attached)
كانkâna
to be
Questions & Answers about كان القاضي وصيا عادلا لأبنائه.
Why doesn't القاضي have a visible case vowel at the end, since it is the subject of كان?
القاضي (the judge) is a defective noun (an ism manqūṣ), meaning it ends in a fixed ـي. For these nouns, the nominative case marker (damma) and the genitive case marker (kasra) are 'assumed' or hidden because they are too heavy to pronounce. It is still grammatically in the nominative case as the subject of كان (kāna).
Why do وصيا and عادلا end with an alif?
Why is the hamza in لأبنائه written on a little chair (ئ) instead of on the line?
This is due to Arabic spelling rules for the middle hamza. The preposition لِـ (for) puts the noun أبناء (children) in the genitive case (majrūr), so the hamza takes a kasra ('i' sound) before the suffix ـه (his). When a middle hamza is pronounced with a kasra, it must be written on a nabira (a yaa-shaped chair), changing its shape in أبنائه.