خدمة الزباين بفرع البنك اتصلت فيي.

Customer service at the bank branch called me.

Breakdown of خدمة الزباين بفرع البنك اتصلت فيي.

• اتصل في: to call
• فرع بنك: the bank branch
• خدمة الزباين: customer service

Questions & Answers about خدمة الزباين بفرع البنك اتصلت فيي.

Why does خدمة الزباين mean customer service? It looks like service + the customers.

This is an iḍāfa construction, often called a construct phrase.

So:

• خدمة = service
• الزباين = the customers

Put together, خدمة الزباين literally means the service of the customers, but in natural English that becomes customer service.

This is very common in Arabic. The first noun names the category, and the second noun tells you what it is related to.

Compare:

• فرع البنك = the branch of the bank = the bank branch
• مدير الشركة = the manager of the company = the company manager

So خدمة الزباين is the normal Arabic way to say customer service.

Why is there no ال on خدمة? Why not الخدمة الزباين?

Because in an iḍāfa phrase, the first noun usually does not take ال.

So:

• خدمة الزباين = customer service
• not الخدمة الزباين

The definiteness comes from the second noun. Since الزباين is definite, the whole phrase خدمة الزباين is understood as definite too.

The same thing happens in:

• فرع البنك = the bank branch
• not الفرع البنك

This is one of the most important noun patterns in Arabic, so it is worth getting very comfortable with it.