ما وظيفة "الذي" في: "الطالب الذي فاز بالجائزة مجتهدٌ"؟

The question asks about the grammatical function of the word الذي in the sentence: الطالب الذي فاز بالجائزة مجتهدٌ ("The student who won the prize is diligent"). In Arabic grammar (النحو), words are classified by their function within the sentence.

الذي is an اسم موصول (relative pronoun). Relative pronouns in Arabic connect a relative clause (صلة الموصول) to a noun that precedes it, called the antecedent (المرجع). Here, الذي links the clause فاز بالجائزة ("won the prize") back to الطالب ("the student"), specifying which student is being described. The full relative clause الذي فاز بالجائزة functions as a descriptor of الطالب.

The other options describe different grammatical categories: اسم استفهام (interrogative pronoun) is used in questions, such as مَن ("who?") or ما ("what?"); ظرف مكان (adverb of place) indicates location, such as أمام or فوق; and اسم إشارة (demonstrative pronoun) points to something, such as هذا ("this") or ذلك ("that"). Recognising الذي, التي, الذين, and اللاتي as relative pronouns is fundamental to parsing Arabic sentences.