صديقتي تريد أن تذهب إلى الجامعة اليوم، لكنها مريضة.

my

Breakdown of صديقتي تريد أن تذهب إلى الجامعة اليوم، لكنها مريضة.

• الى: to
• يذهب: to go
• اليوم: today

Questions & Answers about صديقتي تريد أن تذهب إلى الجامعة اليوم، لكنها مريضة.

What does صديقتي literally mean, and how is it formed?

صديقة means female friend. The ending ـي means my, so صديقتي means my female friend.

A useful pronunciation point: the ة in صديقة is normally a tāʾ marbūṭa, but when a suffix is added, it is pronounced as a real t sound. So this is pronounced roughly ṣadīqatī, not ṣadīqaī.

Why does تريد mean she wants? I thought verbs with تـ were for you.

In the present tense in Arabic, the prefix تـ can mark more than one form. It is used for:

• she
• you masculine singular
• you feminine singular, with a different ending

So in this sentence, تريد means she wants because the subject is صديقتي.

Compare:

• يريد = he wants
• تريد = she wants or you want masculine singular, depending on context

Here the context makes it clearly she wants.

Why is there no separate word for she before تريد?

Arabic often does not use a separate subject pronoun when the verb already shows the subject.