Word
في المساء جلست في الغرفة لأنها كانت هادئة، وكتبت لصديقتي عن الدعوة الجميلة.
Meaning
In the evening I sat in the room because it was quiet, and I wrote to my friend about the nice invitation.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Breakdown of في المساء جلست في الغرفة لأنها كانت هادئة، وكتبت لصديقتي عن الدعوة الجميلة.
في
in
ي
my
و
and
صديقة
friend
Questions & Answers about في المساء جلست في الغرفة لأنها كانت هادئة، وكتبت لصديقتي عن الدعوة الجميلة.
Why does the sentence start with في المساء?
Arabic often places a time expression first to set the scene. في المساء literally means in the evening, and it works a lot like an opening time phrase in English, such as In the evening, ...
So:
في المساء جلست في الغرفة...
= In the evening, I sat in the room...
This is very natural in Arabic.
Why is there no separate word for I before جلست and كتبت?
Because the verb itself already contains the subject.
In the past tense, Arabic verbs show who did the action. So جلستُ means I sat, and كتبتُ means I wrote. Since I is already built into the verb, Arabic usually does not need أنا.
So:
- جلستُ = I sat
- كتبتُ = I wrote
You could add أنا for emphasis, but normally it is omitted.
How do I know جلست means I sat here, and not you sat or she sat?
This is a very common learner question, because normal Arabic writing usually leaves out short vowels.
Without vowel marks, جلست could represent several forms:
- جلستُ = I sat