موظف المحطة يعيد الحجز على القطار البديل.

The station employee rebooks on the replacement train.

Breakdown of موظف المحطة يعيد الحجز على القطار البديل.

• على: on
• قطار بديل: replacement train
• موظف المحطة: station employee

Questions & Answers about موظف المحطة يعيد الحجز على القطار البديل.

Does موظف المحطة mean the station employee or a station employee?

It normally means the station employee.

That is because موظف المحطة is an iḍāfa construction, often called a possessive or noun-link construction:

• موظف = employee
• المحطة = the station

When the second noun is definite, the whole phrase becomes definite. So موظف المحطة is understood as the station employee.

Why doesn’t موظف have الـ?

Because in an iḍāfa construction, the first noun usually does not take الـ.

So Arabic says:

• موظف المحطة = the station employee

not:

• الموظف المحطة

The definiteness comes from the second noun, المحطة.
Also, the first noun in iḍāfa does not take tanwīn either.

What grammatical role does المحطة have here?