Arabic vocabulary
سَفِينَة is how you say “ship” in Arabic. Hear it pronounced and see it used in real example sentences from classical texts below.
يغتفر ملاح سفينتها إلى جذفٍ واصطبار،
Its sailor overlooks the world, rowing with patience and endurance,
سَفِينَتِهَا — of its ship. This is 'its ship', the owner in 'sailor of its ship', in the genitive to mark possession, with the attached 'its (feminine)' pointing back to the world. The suffix reaches back to that earlier feminine noun, not the nearest one.
From: Preferring the Hereafter →يُغْتَفَرُ أَمْلَاحُ سَفِينَتِها إِلَى جَذْفٍ وَاصْطِبَارٍ،
The sailor of its ship will be forgiven for his rowing and his steadfast endurance.
سَفِينَتِها — its ship. A noun with -ha ('its') attached, completing the possessive chain — 'sailor of its ship'. As the owner end it takes the genitive ending, and the attached 'its' points back to the worldly life pictured as a ship. The owner is folded onto the noun's tail rather than written as a separate word.
From: This World Is Short →OpenArabic teaches words like سَفِينَة through real bilingual reading with native audio and spaced-repetition practice.
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