في زهرتين حمرا عالبلكون جنب الشجرة الصغيرة.

There are two red flowers on the balcony next to the small tree.

Breakdown of في زهرتين حمرا عالبلكون جنب الشجرة الصغيرة.

• صغير: small
• ال: the
• في: to exist
• جنب: next to

Questions & Answers about في زهرتين حمرا عالبلكون جنب الشجرة الصغيرة.

What does في mean at the beginning of the sentence?

Here في means there is / there are, not just in.

In Levantine, when في comes at the start of a sentence, it often introduces existence:

• في ولد هون = there is a boy here
• في ناس برا = there are people outside

So في زهرتين... means there are two flowers...

Why is زهرتين used?

زهرتين is the dual form of زهرة, so it means two flowers.

Breakdown:

• زهرة = a flower
• زهرتين = two flowers

Because زهرة is feminine, the dual ending appears as -تين here.

Also, in everyday Levantine, the dual usually uses an -ēn / -ين type ending in most situations, so زهرتين is the normal spoken form.

Why does حمرا come after زهرتين?

Because adjectives normally come after the noun in Arabic.

So:

• زهرتين حمرا = two red flowers

This is the opposite of English, where the adjective usually comes first:

• red flowers

That noun-then-adjective order is one of the most important word-order differences to get used to in Arabic.

Why is the adjective حمرا not in a dual form?