"قَهْوَة سيث بَيْضاء لٰكِنّ طَيِّبة."

Translation: Seth's coffee is white but good.

[ShiraMazor]

White coffe does exist, mostly in Yemen. It is lightly roasted coffee beans with herbs

[Ariel_Horn]

Thanks for the info.

[Away54]

ShiraMazor: nice info!

---

By the way, I include Grammar sentence correction here to keep the thread short.

"lakinna" لَكِنَّ can't be followed directly by its khabar (ie. طيبة Tayyiba).

So, it should be:

قهوةُ سيثٍ بيضاءُ لَكنَّها طيبةٌ.

"qahwatu siithin baiDaa-u2 lakinnahaa Tayyibatun" / "qahwa siith baiDaa lakinnahaa Tayyiba".

Or ....

If we want to put Tayyiba directly, we may use "lakin" لَكِنْ.

قهوةُ سيثٍ بيضاءُ لَكنْ طيبةٌ.

"qahwatu siithin baiDaa-u2 lakin Tayyibatun" / "qahwa siith baiDaa lakin Tayyiba".

[KatieC993112]

Thank you, Away 54.
1. Why mustn't toyyiba follow directly after لكن?
2. The suffix ها means her, doesn't it? How would that be translated here?
3. I would have thought toyyiba was the second khabar (predicate) of قهوة، not a predicate of لكن، which looks to me like a conjunction joining two predicates, no?
I'd love to be shown where I've gone wrong.

[Away54]

(1) "Thank you"

You're welcome, KatieC!

(2). "Why mustn't toyyiba follow directly after لكن?"

"lakinna" (لكنَّ) is a sister of kaana كان that should have 2al-mubtada2 (المبتدأ) and 2al-khabar (الخبر), it is ترفع المبتدأ وتنصب الخبر. So, we cannot put the Tayyiba طيبةٌ directly because "lakinna" لَكنَّ tarfa3 2al-mubtada2 (المبتدع), ie. "haa" ها, and not tarfa3 the verb.

(3) "The suffix ها means her, doesn't it? How would that be translated here?"

Here "haa" ها means "it" and is back to "qahwa" قهوة. The literal translation is "but it is good".

(4) "no?"

Tayyiba طيبةٌ is the khabar of "lakinna" لَكنَّ. Whilst, the "lakin Tayyiba" لكنْ طيبةٌ (or "lakinnahaa Tayyiba" لكنّها طيبةٌ) phrase is لا محل لها من الإعراب. Or, to make the matter simpler, in short: "Tayyiba is not the second khabar."

Nb: The sentence will be simpler if we use "lakin" لَكنْ. Interestingly, Duolingo spells "lakinna" لكِنَّ as it looks like "lakin" لكِنْ. Possibly, it is a bug from the Course system. Hope they will fix this soon.

[uccio.123]

Do you know what herbs are roasted with the coffee to make it 'white coffee', ShiraMazor?

[giovannico325125]

This is impossible. Seth must have sold something else as coffe.

[Mondegreen12]

Or he added too much cream.

[LeviAraujo34407]

Hahaha
But really, is this a Common use of "white"? An arabic speaker would refer to diluted/weak coffee as "white"?

[Sean_Roy]

Duh! It's albino coffee. ;-)

[Mohamed388301]

Thats not coffee, thats milk.

[8A4V2]

That's not milk...

[musicislife73]

Please accept لكن in place of لٰكِنّ. It is impossible to type the dagger alif on a standard Arabic keyboard, and it is never written anyway. Also, the ضمة on the همزة in بيضاء makes it sound like ولكن.

[Away54]

If we put diacritics/Harakaat, the standard way to write "لكن" is لَكن with fatHa in "ل".

Whilst, the dagger alif in lakin لٰكن is a slang. So, it's so weird if we should write lakin with dagger alif.

[miroslav351]

Why is it not ابيض instead?

[sanne918432]

baiiDaa2 is the feminin form

[Fox1024]

ohhhhhhhh

[Emma74030]

There is such a thing as "white coffee" in Lebanon. It is not actually coffee, but hot water with orange blossom water. It is served after meals to aid digestion.

[Sophia_Eressea]

so, a kind of tea?

[mollyjeffs]

Shouldn't it be ولكن ? Also it is impossible to do dagger alif on keyboard!

[Away54]

mollyjeffs,

We may use ولكن also.

قهوةُ سيثٍ بيضاءُ ولَكنَّها طيبةٌ

قهوةُ سيثٍ بيضاءُ ولَكنْ طيبةٌ

For dagger alif: It should not be a mandatory. Furthermore, لٰكن is a slang.

[BrettRay1]

Okay, even if there is such a thing as Yemeni or Lebanese white coffees, the construction here seems so weird.

[vsandl]

There are far too many types of coffee nowadays, at least in GB and US. Flat white, latte, skinny latte, cappuccino, espresso... and that's just a few.

[Rahman932029]

That is golda white coffee

[Mel725869]

_

[ErnstdeBel]

The coffee of Seth was wronged. Why?

[LeviAraujo34407]

"The coffee of Seth" seems a very weird construction in my opinion. I'm not a native english speaker, but I cannot imagine someone saying that...

[Sophia_Eressea]

Exactly. Assuming "Seth" is a person or at least animated, you follow this pattern to express [owner]'s [possession]. This is called the Saxon Genitive, now you can look it up :)

[Away54]

Sophia_Eressea, wow thanks a lot for mentioning the term. :)

Here's more about Saxon Genitive: https://www.wallstreetenglish.com/blog/english-possessives-the-saxon-genitive/

[Sophia_Eressea]

I know ;) I think you have to familiarize people with the technical ( i e grammatical) terms so they can start accessing grammars for additional information :3

[Away54]

Great technique! Awesome :D

[enigmajf]

How'd you say Seth's white coffee?

[Away54]

enigmajf,

"Seth's white coffee" will be:

قهوةُ سيتٍ البيضاءُ

qahwatu siithin 2al-baiDaa2u (Formal)

qahwa siith 2al-baiDaa2 (Informal)