"The professor's pen is expensive."

Translation: قَلَم اَلْأُسْتاذة غالي.

[Filip921990]

The answer قلم الأستاذ غالي is accepted as a typo, even though there is no indication of gender in the English sentence.

[birlisan]

Maybe they think that a male teacher never has an expensive pen.

[Away54]

"Ghaalii" غالي refers to the قلم and not for the (female) professor.

[CorporalNewkirk]

I agree, and there is no option to report "my answer should be accepted," either :/

[GrahamWhit324102]

I agree too

[86gc]

قام الأستاذة غالية
i think it should be right. I am learning not. Only from this app. I am learning from others support also so please clear my concept.

[Away54]

86gc:

1). Pen "قلم" is always a masculine gender.

2). Expensive "غالي" refers back to Pen "قلم" and not "الأستاذة" the (female) Professor.

So, it should be "غالي" ghaalii and not "غالية" ghaliya.

We can find further explanation about genders here https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/the-gender-of-arabic-nouns-1/

3). You have written Pen "قلم" as Stand "قام". Both have different meanings.

4). If the sentence is "the (female) professor is expensive", we can use "الأستاذة غالية"

Hope it helps. And, please correct me if I am wrong :)

[KatieC993112]

Abdolutely right, Away54, except that gender is not an animal or a plant, so it can't be male or female. The word is masculine or feminine.

[Away54]

Thanks KatieC, I will fix the English terms. :)

[KatieC993112]

And thank YOU, Away54, for the link about genders. I'm gradually realising that I haven't got my vowels sorted out. For example, in the word عَلاَمَة - marker - I don't understand why there are fathas over the alif and over the Miim. Is the first fatha to make the alif short? and what difference would it make if there were no fatha over the Miim?

[KatieC993112]

Thank you, Away54. Then, for 1), it must be a misprint in the original text, because I copy and pasted that word; and 2) if it makes no difference, what on earth is the point of putting a fatha on the miim, especially as harakat are not normally used? I thought the idea of adding harakat was to make explicit the pronunciation of short vowels. Perhaps this is another misprint? Two misprints in one word, that seems to be rather careless editing.

[KatieC993112]

Thank you, Away54, but I'm still not satisfied. You yourself said, "Both are the same - علَامَة and علَامة". My point was that a fatha over the miim is redundant. It doesn't clarify the pronunciation, does it? Or is there something I haven't realised, and it does make a difference? But, I repeat, you yourself said that both are the same.

[Away54]

KatieC,

Honestly, I cannot grasp your question fully. So, ... To simplify this matter, Harakaat (e.g., fatHa over the miim) are for beginners. That's all!

Nb: That's why the Holy Quran has Harakaat - because the reading skill of people nowadays is weaker than the previous generations.