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- "Do you have a spacious bedro…
"Do you have a spacious bedroom, Bob?"
Translation:هَل عِنْدَك غُرْفة نَوْم واسِعة يا بوب؟
16 Comments
No, the ك at the end of عندك is referring to Bob. No need for an extra ل. That's the way we normally say it.
I'm saying instead of عند. عند is for possessions with someone, while ل is for more permanent possessions. I feel like if you were asking someone if they had a spacious bedroom, you'd use the latter.
(Based on what I learned in the Medina Arabic series, and studying the books tasheel an-nahw and hidayatun nahw)
Based on what I learned in the Madina Arabic series, ل is used in case of people. For example, do you have a brother would be هل لك أخ؟ and not عندك; whereas if it's anything else it'd be عند as in the case of pets, or material possessions etc.
According to the Hans Wehr dictionary, عند means more like "on" or "near" you, rather than possessing in general. So it'd be more correct to use ل.
It also has the meaning of “have”, but some dictionaries don’t include that meaning, because that meaning is more often used in spoken Arabic. In written Arabic, we’d prefer writing لَدَيْكَ
It says the same thing for لدن and لدي, it means close by/at hand. According to hidayatun nahw, لدن and all variants have the same meaning as عند.
BUT, I see, this is supposed to be spoken Arabic, not fus7a. Must be a difference between the two. Why was this choice made if I might ask? Wouldn't it be more useful to teach proper Arabic? I wasn't expecting much out of it other than vocabulary to begin with, but some of my friends seem disappointed that it doesn't follow classical Arabic grammar overall
Duolingo favors practical language over academic correctness. Modern Standard Arabic is nobody’s native tongue. Speaking pure MSA sounds super weird and some less educated Arabs won’t even understand you. If you wish to learn MSA to perfection, that would require an in-depth study of its grammar, something that the Duolingo method isn’t very well suited for.
When we are talking, we rarely use هل. I've never heard it being used in spoken Arabic in Lebanon, unless it's a political speech or something official.
Yes, it is a حرف استفهام, in Fus7a Arabic it is necessary, otherwise it is a جملة خبرية, not a جملة أنشائية. It would be like saying "Your room spacious?" Technically people say that in spoken English but the correct way is "Is your room spacious?"
