"في هٰذِهِ الْصّورة اِمْرَأة مُضْحِكة."

Translation: There is a funny woman in this picture.

[AnthPalm]

Can i ask why a direct translation of "In this picture there is a funny woman" isn't accepted?

[Damn_Jah]

It Was Accepted For Me....

[Ariel81606]

It is - it might depend how you're accessing Duolingo. It works on my tablet.

[franciscus55]

Why do I hear a "t" between الْصّورة and اِمْرَأة ?

[Away54]

franciscus55,

You have a good question! The "t" sound comes from ة ta marbuTa. So, the audio pronounces the sentence above something like this:

فِي هذه الصورةِ امرأة

"fii haadhihiS Suuratimra2a"

We assume that Duolingo tries to omit sound at almost all words and doesn't follow Standard Grammar as people oftentimes do on their daily basis.

"Normally", it is pronounced something like follows: "fii haadhih 2aS-Surah 2imra-2ah". But, Duolingo wants to keep the pronunciation flowing.

So, the "t" sound from ة is raised.

Whilst, the ا in امرأة is neglected, like when they say "ما اسمك؟" : what's your name?

Hence, it becomes "tim".

(For Standar Grammar, the explanation will be different).

Nb: if we follow Standard Arabic, the correct pronunciation for هذه is هَذه hadhihi -- without dagger alif.

[KatieCos]

Away54, thank you. But I don't see why you put "Normally" in inverted commas?

[Katherle]

"Funny" in what sense -- amusing or odd?

[linguafiqari]

"Amusing".

This is what's great about Arabic; as you progress in the language, you'll start to get more familiar with the templates that the roots fall into. This particular one is the adjective for verbs in Form IV – causative verbs which use the template aCCaCa. In this case, the verb is "أَضحَكَ" (aDH7aka – to make laugh). The active participle, which is used for the adjective too, uses the template muCCiC – so, here, it's "مُضحِك" (muDH7ik – s.o./sth. that makes (s.o.) laugh), and then of course with ta' marbuta, as it's the feminine form (مُضحِكة - muDH7ika).

For further reference, a couple other verbs and their participles are:

"أَحزَنَ" (a7zana – to sadden)
"مُحزِن" (mu7zin – sad; saddening)

"أَزعَجَ" (az3aja – to annoy)
"مُزعِج" (muz3ij – annoying)

"أَفرَحَ" (afra7a – to delight s.o.)
"مُفرِح" (mufri7 – delightful)

[rink879172]

Why number 7 is used here as in aDH7aka in your text? Please elaborate..thanks

[DjibrilAA]

They're using it as short-hand for the Arabic letter ح (transcribed as "H" in this course), as I believe it is commonly used by Arabic speakers e.g. when they have to text in the Latin alphabet…

[KatieCos]

Thank you, dear linguafiqari! That's fantastic! I'll copy it into my notebook.

[Sean_Jeddah]

When I read this, I do not see the word "there". For example, I translated it as "In this picture a woman is funny." Shouldn't the word "هناك" be included?
Like this:
"في هٰذِهِ الْصّورةهناك اِمْرَأة مُضْحِكة."

[prero]

Why was "In this picture there is a funny woman" not accepted?

[Bonjour689181]

There is in this picture a funny woman. Should be accepted because "in this picture" is only a modifier and the location of the modifier can be anywhere. PLEASE, an expert expound. :)

[AnthPalm]

That is very garbled English, like you stumbled over your sentence and fixed it enough that the listener could understand what you're saying. It could work with punctuation though,, "There is, in this picture, a funny woman."

[prero]

Though not used in conversational everyday English, this sort of sentence can be seen in English prose and poetry.

[KatieCos]

Yes. The answer Duolingo gives is the correct one because it's in the most natural (unmarked) word order. Other word orders can be used in particular circumstances, but they're "marked", ie not the neutral way of expressing the proposition.

[Nanou664858]

I would rather say, as AnthPalm, “in this picture there is a funny woman” but it is refused.

[KatieCos]

Again, slightly marked. The answer given by Duolingo is the most normal (unmarked) word order.

[judy2177]

lady = woman, no?