إضافة iDaafa is a combination of two words, the first of which does NOT carry the definite article.
وسط المدينة
wasaT il-madiina – (the) center of the city (city center)
حفيز السيد أحمد
Hafiiz as-sayyid aHmad – (the) office of Mr. Ahmad
مكتب البريد
maktab il-bariid – office of the post (the Post Office)
صندوق البريد
Sunduug il-bariid – box of the post = P.O. Box
Most addresses in the Gulf are P.O.Box addresses. This is due to the fact that, in most cases, mail is not delivered to homes or offices, but is collected from Post Office Boxes.
شارع الملك فهد
shaari^ il-malik fahd – street/road of King Fahd (King Fahd Str.)
In the following case, we have two iDaafas – نهاية الشارع nihaayat ish-shaari^ (the end of the road) and شارع الملك shaari^ il-malik (the street of the king), therefore shaari^ loses its definite article ish-.
نهاية الملك فهد
nihaayat shaari^ al-malik fahd – end of street of King Fahd (the end of King Fahd Str.)
In case we do not mean the second word to be definite, we get the following examples. No need for English ‘of’ or ‘a’.
وسط مدينة
wasaT madiina – (a) center (of a) city
شارع ملك
shaari^ malik – (a) street (of a) king
نهاية شارع
nihaayat shaari^ – (an) end (of a) street
To recapitulate by comparison:
بيت التاجر
bayt it-taajir – (the) house (of) the merchant
بيت تاجر
bayt taajir – (a) house (of a) merchant
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