فجأة السيارة تعطلت.

car

Breakdown of فجأة السيارة تعطلت.

• تعطل: to break down; stop working
• فجأة: suddenly

Questions & Answers about فجأة السيارة تعطلت.

What does each word in فجأة السيارة تعطلت do?

• فجأة = suddenly
• السيارة = the car
• تعطلت = broke down or stopped working

So the sentence is built as:

• adverb
  • subject
    • verb

Even though the meaning is already known, this helps show how the sentence is put together grammatically.

Why does تعطلت end with -ت?

Because السيارة is grammatically feminine singular in Arabic.

The verb تعطلت is the past tense, 3rd person feminine singular form, so it matches السيارة.

• هو تعطّل = he/it broke down for a masculine noun
• هي تعطّلت = she/it broke down for a feminine noun

Since car in Arabic is feminine, the feminine verb form is used.

Is السيارة really feminine, even though a car is not a female thing?

Yes. In Arabic, grammatical gender is not the same as real-life biological gender.

سيارة is a grammatically feminine noun, so adjectives and past-tense verbs often agree with it in the feminine form.

This is very normal in Arabic:

• السيارة جديدة = the car is new
• السيارة تعطلت = the car broke down

So the feminine agreement here is purely grammatical.