ابني ساكن في المدينة.

A natural Egyptian-style pronunciation is:

ebni sāken fil-madīna

A rough breakdown:

• ابني → ebni = my son
• ساكن → sāken = living / residing
• في → fi = in
• المدينة → el-madīna = the city

In fast speech, في المدينة is often heard as fil-madīna.

Because ابن means son, and the suffix ـي means my.

So:

• ابن = son
• ابني = my son

This ـي suffix is very common in Arabic:

• بيتي = my house
• أختي = my sister
• اسمي = my name

So ابني is literally son-my.

In Arabic, present-tense sentences like this usually do not use a separate word for is / am / are.

So:

• ابني ساكن في المدينة literally looks like my son living in the city
• but it naturally means My son is living in the city or My son lives in the city

This is completely normal in Arabic.
If you wanted the past, then Arabic would use a verb such as كان:

• ابني كان ساكن في المدينة = My son was living in the city

ساكن literally means living, residing, or inhabiting.

In Egyptian Arabic, this word is often used very naturally to talk about where someone lives:

• أنا ساكن في القاهرة = I live in Cairo
• هي ساكنة هنا = She lives here

So in this sentence, ساكن does the job that English often expresses with live.

It is historically an active participle, but in everyday Egyptian Arabic you can think of it as a very common way to say where someone lives.

This is a very common learner question.

In Egyptian Arabic, active participles like ساكن are often used to describe a current state. For residence, this is especially natural.

So:

• ابني ساكن في المدينة = My son lives / is living in the city

A verbal form can also exist in Arabic, but ساكن is very common and idiomatic when talking about where someone resides.

A useful way to think about it is:

• ساكن focuses on the state of living somewhere
• it sounds very natural for residence in Egyptian Arabic

Because في means in.

So:

• في = in
• المدينة = the city

Together:

• في المدينة = in the city

Without في, the meaning would be different and the sentence would not express location correctly.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• مدينة = city
• المدينة = the city

Since the meaning is already understood as the city, the definite article is needed here.

If you wanted to say in a city, you would use:

• في مدينة

This is a nominal sentence in Arabic, meaning it starts with a noun rather than a verb.

The structure is:

• ابني = the topic
• ساكن في المدينة = the comment about the topic

So the sentence works like:

• My son
  • lives in the city

This kind of structure is extremely common in Arabic, especially for simple present-time descriptions.

Yes. It agrees with the person being described.

For a masculine singular subject:

• ابني ساكن في المدينة = My son lives in the city

For a feminine singular subject:

• بنتي ساكنة في المدينة = My daughter lives in the city

Notice the feminine ending ـة on ساكنة.

So agreement matters in Arabic.

It is very understandable, and the words themselves are not difficult for speakers of either variety. But the sentence feels especially natural in spoken Arabic, including Egyptian Arabic, because of the use of ساكن to mean living / residing in an everyday way.

A speaker of Modern Standard Arabic would also understand it easily.
In Egyptian speech, though, this kind of sentence sounds very normal and common.

Yes. In Arabic, this sentence can cover both ideas depending on context.

So ابني ساكن في المدينة can mean:

• My son lives in the city
• My son is living in the city

English makes a stronger distinction between simple present and present progressive. Arabic often relies more on context.

If the wider conversation makes it clear that this is temporary, the sentence can be understood that way. If not, it often sounds like a general statement of residence.