Word
صحة صديقتي أفضل اليوم، لكنها لا تذهب إلى العمل.
Meaning
My friend's health is better today, but she does not go to work.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Questions & Answers about صحة صديقتي أفضل اليوم، لكنها لا تذهب إلى العمل.
Why is there no word for is in صحة صديقتي أفضل اليوم?
In Arabic, the present-tense to be is usually omitted.
So Arabic says something like:
- صحة صديقتي أفضل اليوم
- literally: my friend's health better today
This is a normal nominal sentence in Arabic.
If you wanted was or will be, Arabic would usually add a form of كان:
- كانت صحة صديقتي أفضل أمس = My friend's health was better yesterday
- ستكون صحة صديقتي أفضل غدًا = My friend's health will be better tomorrow
How does صحة صديقتي mean my friend's health?
This is an iḍāfa construction, often called a possessive construction.
It is built like this:
- صحة = health
- صديقتي = my friend (female)
Together:
- صحة صديقتي = the health of my friend = my friend's health
A few useful points:
- صديقة means female friend
- the ending -ي means my
- so صديقتي = my female friend
In an iḍāfa, the first noun usually does not take الـ here, even though the whole phrase can still be definite because the second noun is definite.