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- "The professor's pen is expen…
"The professor's pen is expensive."
Translation:قَلَم اَلْأُسْتاذة غالي.
13 Comments
340
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 :)
336
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.
336
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?
336
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.
336
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.
340
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.