أَرْبَعَةٌfour

Example sentences

• مَاتَ مِنْ الذُّكُورِ أَرْبَعَةٌ،

  Four of the males died.

  أَرْبَعَةٌ — four. This number word is the real subject of the verb 'died' even though it stands at the end of the clause. Arabic regularly places the doer after its verb, so reading order and grammatical role come apart here; the dying is predicated of this count, picked out of the group named just before.

  From: Sermons, Wit, and Sorrow →