بِئْرwell

Example sentences

• وسكوت هذا الواقع في البئر محظور عليه،

  And the silence of this man in the well is prohibited for him,

  البِئْرِ — in the well. This noun is the place he is in, held in the governed form by 'in'. The 'the' makes it the definite, specific well.

  From: Trust in God →

• حَتَّى دَخَلَ بِئْرَ أَرِيسِ، فَجَلَسْتُ عِنْدَ الْبَابِ،

  Until he entered the well of Aris, and I sat by the door.

  بِئْرَ — well. The first noun of an 'of' pair, 'well', the thing entered; it gives up any 'the' and takes definiteness from the owner-name to follow. The two nouns abut with no word for 'of'.

  From: Three Companions Promised Paradise →

• وَدَلَّى رِجْلَيْهِ فِي الْبِئْرِ،

  And he lowered his two legs into the well,

  الْبِئْرِ — the well. The al- here makes the noun definite, 'the' rather than 'a', and its oblique ending is forced on it by the preposition sitting just before. Definiteness frames it as a specific, already-known thing, while that case-vowel is Arabic's way of showing the preposition governs it - a job English does purely by position.

  From: Three Companions Promised Paradise →