Breakdown of عندما تكون بطارية هاتفي ضعيفة، أشحنه في البيت قبل أن أخرج.
ي
my
أن
(subordinating particle)
قبل
before
في
at/in
Questions & Answers about عندما تكون بطارية هاتفي ضعيفة، أشحنه في البيت قبل أن أخرج.
Why does the sentence begin with عندما?
عندما means when and introduces a time clause.
So:
- عندما تكون بطارية هاتفي ضعيفة = when my phone battery is low
It is very common in MSA to use عندما before a clause with a present-tense verb to talk about something that happens regularly or whenever a situation occurs.
In this sentence, the speaker is not talking about one single event only. It sounds more like a habit:
- Whenever my phone battery is low, I charge it at home before going out.
Why is the verb تكون feminine?
Because its subject is بطارية (battery), and بطارية is a feminine noun.
In Arabic, verbs often agree with their subjects in gender. Since بطارية is feminine singular, the verb is feminine singular too:
- تكون = it is / it becomes (feminine)
If the subject were masculine, you would use يكون instead.
For example:
- عندما يكون هاتفي جديدًا... = when my phone is new...
- عندما تكون بطارية هاتفي ضعيفة... = when my phone battery is low...
Why do we use تكون at all? Why not just say عندما بطارية هاتفي ضعيفة?
In standard Arabic, after , you normally use a verbal clause, so makes the structure natural and grammatical in MSA.