اليوم بعد الشغل رحت عالمكتبة واشتريت دفتر وقلمين.

the

Breakdown of اليوم بعد الشغل رحت عالمكتبة واشتريت دفتر وقلمين.

• اليوم: today
• شغل: work
• و: and

Questions & Answers about اليوم بعد الشغل رحت عالمكتبة واشتريت دفتر وقلمين.

Why is عالمكتبة written as one word? Is that really one word?

In informal Levantine writing, short prepositions often get attached to the following word. So عالمكتبة is basically:

• عَ / عَـ = a very common colloquial preposition
• المكتبة = the library

So عالمكتبة means to the library here. You may also see it written separately as عَ المكتبة. Both are normal in casual writing.

I thought على means on. Why does عَ mean to here?

In Levantine, عَ is very flexible. It can mean things like:

• to
• at
• on

So with motion verbs like رحت (I went), رحت عَالمكتبة naturally means I went to the library.

This is one of those places where colloquial Arabic does not match English word-for-word.

Why isn’t there a separate word for I in the sentence?

Because the verbs already show the subject.

• رحت = I went
• اشتريت = I bought

So Arabic does not need أنا unless you want emphasis or contrast.

For example: