Word
قبل أن تأتي الضيفة، يرتب صديقي الغرفة ويضع الكراسي عند المائدة.
Meaning
Before the guest comes, my friend tidies the room and puts the chairs at the dining table.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Breakdown of قبل أن تأتي الضيفة، يرتب صديقي الغرفة ويضع الكراسي عند المائدة.
ي
my
و
and
صديق
friend
أن
(subordinating particle)
Questions & Answers about قبل أن تأتي الضيفة، يرتب صديقي الغرفة ويضع الكراسي عند المائدة.
Why does the sentence start with قبل أن?
قبل أن means before when it is followed by a verb.
So:
- قبل = before
- أن = a particle that introduces a verb clause, often similar to to or part of structures like before ... happens
In this sentence:
- قبل أن تأتي الضيفة = before the female guest comes
A very literal breakdown would be:
- قبل = before
- أن تأتي = that she comes / to come
- الضيفة = the female guest
So قبل أن + verb is a very common pattern in Arabic.
Why is the verb تأتي and not يأتي?
Because the subject is الضيفة, which is feminine singular.
Arabic present-tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number. For a feminine singular subject, the verb usually takes the تـ form:
- هي تأتي = she comes
- الضيفة تأتي = the female guest comes
If the subject were masculine, you would use يأتي:
- الضيف يأتي = the male guest comes
So تأتي matches الضيفة correctly.
Why is the subject الضيفة placed after the verb in ?