Questions & Answers about عندما تساعدني أختي في الطبخ، يكون العمل أسهل.
Why does the sentence begin with عندما?
عندما introduces a time clause and means when or whenever.
In this sentence, it has a general/habitual sense: not one specific occasion, but a repeated situation. So the idea is whenever my sister helps me with cooking...
It is very common in MSA to use عندما + a verb to set up the situation before the main clause.
Why is the verb تساعدني feminine?
The subject is أختي (my sister), which is grammatically feminine, so the verb must also be feminine.
The base verb is ساعد (to help).
In the present tense, she helps is تساعد.
So:
- هو يساعد = he helps
- هي تساعد = she helps
Because أختي is feminine, Arabic uses تساعد.
What does the ending -ني in تساعدني mean?
The ending -ني means me.
So:
- تساعد = she helps
- تساعدني = she helps me
This is an attached object pronoun. Arabic often attaches short object pronouns directly to the verb.
Other examples: