Word
افتحي الفرن بعد عشر دقائق، لكن لا تضعي القدر قرب النار.
Meaning
Open the oven after ten minutes, but do not put the pot near the fire.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Breakdown of افتحي الفرن بعد عشر دقائق، لكن لا تضعي القدر قرب النار.
لكن
but
بعد
after
يضع
to put
يفتح
to open
Questions & Answers about افتحي الفرن بعد عشر دقائق، لكن لا تضعي القدر قرب النار.
Why are افتحي and تضعي directed to a woman?
Because the sentence is addressing one female person.
In Modern Standard Arabic, commands and present-tense verb forms change depending on the gender and number of the person addressed.
- افتحي = open! said to one woman
- لا تضعي = don’t put! said to one woman
Compare:
- to one man: افتحْ / لا تضعْ
- to one woman: افتحي / لا تضعي
- to two people: افتحا / لا تضعا
- to a group: افتحوا / لا تضعوا
So the sentence is specifically speaking to أنتِ.
How is افتحي formed?
افتحي is the imperative of the verb فتح (to open) for one female addressee.
A simple way to see it:
- basic verb: فتح
- masculine singular command: افتحْ
- feminine singular command: افتحي
So Arabic takes the command form and adds -ي for you (feminine singular).
The initial ا in افتحي is a helping vowel called hamzat al-waṣl. It allows the word to begin smoothly in pronunciation.