Related to this thread: He has been gone a long time If I want to to say that someone had been gone for a long time, i.e., this absence took place in the past, and I want to use غَيبة , which of these is better: 1. وكان قد طالت غيبتُه 2. وكانت قد طالت غيبتُه In (1) the subject of كان is the person and the subject of طالت is غيبة . Is this allowed and/or preferred in Arabic? Thanks.
I don't think there's a preference of either over the other. "وكان قد طالت غيبته وأبطأ على قريش" "وكانت قد طالت غيبته، واتهمته قريش أنه قد أسلم"
I'm not sure I agree with the second sentence. The اسم كان here would be هي , so why wouldn't the sentence simply be وكانت غيبته قد طالت?
It's a good point Cherine. Grammatically both وكانت غيبته قد طالت and وكانت قد طالت غيبته should be ok, even though the former is more normal, at least for human agents. Right?
Hello Cherine The 2 sentences are quoted from Classical texts speaking of the same story (i.e. same context). Which basically demonstrate that there's no preference of a form over the other. As for وكانت غيبته قد طالت, it works as well.
Ah, ok. I had to repeat it several time to "see" how it sounded and I still prefer the other. But it's just a personal preference of course.
