The use of محيط
Hello, in an article I read today the phrase وعزا التقرير ذلك الى عدد من الحواجز القانونية والاجتماعية المحيطة بالمنطقة came up and I don't understand how the word المحيطة fits in here grammatically. It acts as an adjective but as i understand the sentence it basically means: The report attributed this to a number of legal and social barriers (which are present) in the region. Doesn't محيط mean surroundings/periphery/environment?

How do you translate the sentence and how does المحيطة بالمنطقة fit in?

Thanks!

Question

The use of محيط
Hello, in an article I read today the phrase وعزا التقرير ذلك الى عدد من الحواجز القانونية والاجتماعية المحيطة بالمنطقة came up and I don't understand how the word المحيطة fits in here grammatically. It acts as an adjective but as i understand the sentence it basically means: The report attributed this to a number of legal and social barriers (which are present) in the region. Doesn't محيط mean surroundings/periphery/environment?

How do you translate the sentence and how does المحيطة بالمنطقة fit in?

Thanks!

Answer

yes it does mean surrounding
المحيطة look a feminine for every thing that insane treated as feminine  in its plural form
هذا الحاجز
هذه الحواجز
هذا قلم جديد
هذه اقلام جديدة
هذه الحواجز محيطة بالمنطقة
في كل جهة هناك حاجز 
فالحواجز محيطة بالمنطقة

Answer

"المحيطة بالمنطقه "
it is grammatically right  meaning that "surrounding the area"
The report attributed this to a number of legal and social barriers that surrounding the area
and your translation is perfect 
good luck

Answer

Good question, so basically a barrier necessarily surrounds something right? and المحيطة is either the feminin or the plural form of المحيط which by the way also means "ocean" we say for example 
توجد أسماك وقروش في المحيط  meaning "there is fish and sharks in the ocean" in Arabic, polysemy is pretty common, a word can have thousands of usages and meanings

Answer

Thank you for your explanations. 
Is this a construction that is commonly used? That is, the adjective comes first followed by the noun with ب in front of it? 
Do you know other examples of this?

Answer

Yeah actually in this sentence محيطة is the female adjective of محيط which means "surrounding"
The translation is :
The report attributed that to mnya legal and social barriers that surround the area.

Answers · 6

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