الجذر تحت التربة.

A common Egyptian-style pronunciation is:

el-gizr taHt et-torba

A few useful notes:

• ج is usually a hard g in Egyptian Arabic.
• ذ is often pronounced like z in Egyptian speech, so جذر sounds closer to gizr.
• ح in تحت is a deeper, breathier sound than the normal English h.
• التربة is pronounced et-torba, not el-torba, because of sound assimilation with ت.

In careful Modern Standard Arabic, it would be closer to al-jidhr tahta at-turba.

Because Arabic usually leaves out the present-tense verb to be.

So instead of saying The root is under the soil, Arabic simply says:

الجذر تحت التربة

This is called a nominal sentence. In the present tense, Arabic often does not use a separate word for is / are.

الـ means the.

So:

• الجذر = the root
• التربة = the soil

Arabic often uses the definite article in places where English might or might not use the, depending on context. In this sentence, both nouns are definite, which sounds natural.

تحت means under, below, or beneath.

It tells you the location of something. In this sentence, it shows where the root is located.

You can think of the structure as:

• الجذر = the root
• تحت التربة = under the soil

So تحت is the word that connects the root to its location.

Because ت is a sun letter.

When الـ comes before a sun letter, the l sound is not pronounced. Instead, the next consonant is doubled.

So:

• written: التربة
• formal pronunciation: at-turba
• Egyptian-style pronunciation: et-torba

This same thing happens in many words, such as:

• الشمس → esh-shams
• الناس → en-naas

The sentence is perfectly understandable to Egyptians, but it feels a bit formal or school/book-like, especially because of التربة.

In Egyptian Arabic, people may still say it, especially in a science or educational context. In everyday speech, depending on the exact meaning, someone might also use a more conversational word like الأرض if they mean the ground rather than the soil specifically.

So this sentence is:

• correct
• understandable in Egypt
• a little more formal than very casual street speech

Yes. جذر can have more than one meaning in Arabic, just like root in English.

Possible meanings include:

• a plant root
• a mathematical root
• the root or origin of something
• a word root in grammar/linguistics

But in الجذر تحت التربة, the context makes it clear that it means the root of a plant.

The most natural basic order here is:

الجذر تحت التربة

This starts with the thing you are talking about, then gives its location.

You can move parts around in Arabic for emphasis, but for a learner, this sentence order is the safest and most natural one to use.

So if you simply want to say The root is under the soil, stick with:

الجذر تحت التربة

Because ة is called taa marbuuTa.

At the end of a word, especially when you pause, it is usually pronounced like -a or -ah, not like a strong t.

So:

• التربة sounds like et-torba in Egyptian speech

In more formal connected pronunciation, the t sound can appear in some grammatical situations, but in normal Egyptian pronunciation you usually hear the final -a sound.

That is true in formal Arabic, but not in normal Egyptian speech.

In full Modern Standard Arabic with case endings, this could be read as:

الجذرُ تحتَ التربةِ

But in:

• everyday Egyptian Arabic
• normal spoken Arabic
• most unvowelled writing

those endings are not pronounced.

So for an Egyptian learner, it is completely normal to say:

el-gizr taHt et-torba

without any case endings.