I would never compare a verb (possibly an imperative in your example) that’s contracted with a simple grammatical rule that governs how prepositions are written when followed by the article (which is in turn governed by rules on how it [the article] is written depending on the next letter, in this case a konsonanti xemxija)…

[Daphne – Who made the rules, and more importantly, when and on what basis? The more recent ‘rules’ are made on the basis of working-class Maltese as the standard. I refuse to abide by them. Irkotta, my foot.]

I can understand why someone would want to draw attention to a word if it’s negative imperative, but not when it’s a meaningless assimilated article that adds absolutely no value or emphasis to the meaning of the sentence.

Imma nsomma.

And Sant has a DBA, not a PhD in Economics.

O, sc’gioia! Ruhi tfur bil-ferh meta niftacar!

Reading Mein Kampf for the sake of reading it is one thing. Bringing it along to the Police HQ to make a statement — sorry, to kill time until you’re interrogated — is another. I hope you can make that distinction, Randon.

Well, I’ve never heard a fluent Maltese speaker (irrespective of their upbringing, unless they’re Edwardians — they’re Maltese speakers too, but they’re by no means fluent, save for one or two rare exceptions) say “bħal is-“. It sounds too formulaic and just wrong. That particular preposition (partiċella), ‘bħal’, is always assimilated with the article. See http://www.akkademjatalmalti.com/filebank/documents/Taghrif_rivedut.pdf, p. 78

[Daphne – I am not particularly interested in what the Akkademja says. Their rules and verdicts include some veritable atrocities. And you are wrong about fluent Maltese speakers never saying bhal is-. They do so when they wish to be emphatic by announcing the words separately, in the same way that fluent English speakers almost never say ‘do not’ but occasionally do so for emphasis.]

Ask me again in 2018.

What? White Arrow was a blast.

I’m assuming FD went to SAC Sixth Form. If on the other hand he was a Junior College student, I wouldn’t blame him for wanting to GTFO of there as fast as he could, from what my friends tell me.

He’s still coming to grips with economics and his Professore, Eduardo Scicluna isn’t helping him much.