Breakdown of الموظفون الموثوق بهم قليلون.
الal
the
موظفmuwazzaf
employee
بbi
by, with (attached)
قليلqalîl
a little / few
همhum
their / them (object)
موثوقmawthûq
reliable
Questions & Answers about الموظفون الموثوق بهم قليلون.
Why is الموثوق singular when it modifies the plural noun الموظفون?
الموثوق is a passive participle meaning 'trusted'. It is derived from the verb وثق بـ (to trust in), which requires the preposition بـ. In Arabic, when a passive participle is formed from a verb that requires a preposition, the participle itself stays masculine singular. The plural agreement happens entirely in the attached pronoun هم in the phrase بهم.
Why is the phrase بهم (in them) required here?
The base verb for 'to trust' is وثق بـ (wathiqa bi). You cannot separate this verb, or its participle forms, from the preposition بـ. Since the phrase is describing the employees, we must attach the plural pronoun هم to the preposition to refer back to them. Literally, the phrase means 'the employees who are trusted in'.
Both الموظفون and قليلون end in the same suffix. What grammatical role is this playing?
They both end in ـون (-uun) because they are in the nominative case. This is a standard nominal sentence (a sentence without a main verb). الموظفون is the subject (mubtada') and قليلون is the predicate (khabar). For sound masculine plurals, the nominative case is always marked by this ending.
What happens if I remove the الـ from الموثوق?
If you remove the الـ, the word becomes indefinite. Because الموظفون is definite, an indefinite موثوق بهم would no longer act as its describing adjective. Instead, it would become the predicate of the sentence, changing the meaning entirely to 'The employees are trusted'.
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