Questions & Answers about صديقتي بالمطعم هلا.
Why is there no word for is in this sentence?
In Levantine Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually omitted.
So instead of saying something like My friend is at the restaurant now, Arabic often just puts the pieces next to each other:
صديقتي + بالمطعم + هلا
That is completely normal in the present tense.
If you wanted the past, you would usually use كان: صديقتي كانت بالمطعم = My friend was at the restaurant
What does صديقتي mean grammatically?
صديقتي breaks down into:
- صديقة = female friend
- ـي = my
So صديقتي literally means my female friend.
A useful thing to notice: when the feminine ending ـة takes a suffix like ـي, it is pronounced as t. That is why it is صديقتي, not just صديقة.
Does صديقتي specifically mean a female friend?
Yes. صديقتي refers to a female friend.
If you mean my male friend, you would say:
صديقي
So the gender of the friend matters here.
Why is it بالمطعم and not two separate words?