صديقتي كانت بالمكتبة عم تدور على كتاب عربي جديد.

my

Breakdown of صديقتي كانت بالمكتبة عم تدور على كتاب عربي جديد.

• كتاب: book
• ال: the
• جديد: new

Questions & Answers about صديقتي كانت بالمكتبة عم تدور على كتاب عربي جديد.

Why does صديقتي mean my friend, and why is there a -ي at the end?

صديقتي breaks down as:

• صديقة = a female friend
• -ي = my

So صديقتي literally means my female friend.

A native English speaker often wonders why there is no separate word for my. In Arabic, possession is very often shown by adding a suffix directly to the noun.

Also note:

• صديق = male friend
• صديقة = female friend

So the -ة helps mark the noun as feminine, and the -ي adds the meaning my.

Why is كانت used here?

كانت is the feminine past form of كان (to be / to be in a certain state).

Here it is used to help form a past continuous idea:

• كانت عم تدور = she was looking
• literally something like she was in the process of looking

Because the subject is صديقتي (my female friend), the verb must be feminine, so we use كانت rather than كان.

A quick comparison:

• كان = he was
• كانت = she was

Why do we need both and ? Don’t they both relate to the verb?