Breakdown of التقطنا هذه الصورة العفوية سنة سافرنا إلى مصر.
الal
the
هذهhâdhihi
this (f)
إلىilâ
to
ناnâ
our / us (object) / we (subject suffix on past verb)
سافرsâfara
to travel
صورةsûra
picture
مصرmisr
Egypt
سنةsana
year
التقطiltaqata
to capture (a photo); to pick up
عفويafwiyy
spontaneous
Questions & Answers about التقطنا هذه الصورة العفوية سنة سافرنا إلى مصر.
How does the phrase "the year we traveled" work grammatically in سنة سافرنا?
The word سنة (year) is a temporal noun (adverb of time) that is directly annexed to the entire verbal clause سافرنا (we traveled) in an Idafa (genitive construction). In Arabic, certain nouns of time can take a whole sentence as their second term (mudaf ilayh) instead of just a single noun.
Why doesn't سنة have a preposition before it, like "في سنة" (in the year), and what is its case ending?
While you could say في سنةِ (in the year of), it is standard to use this temporal noun as a direct adverb of time without a preposition. Because it indicates when the action happened, سنة is in the accusative case (mansub) and ends with a fatha, pronounced as سنةَ.
Why use التقطنا for "we took" instead of the basic verb أخذنا?
The verb أخذ generally means to physically take hold of or acquire something. For taking photographs, the standard phrasing in Arabic is التقط صورة (literally to capture or catch a picture), using Form VIII of the root ل-ق-ط.
What vowel does مصر take at the end of this sentence, given it follows the preposition إلى?
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