الفهرس قبل الملخص.

A common Egyptian-style pronunciation is:

el-fehres 'abl el-molakhkhas

A few useful notes:

• الـ is usually pronounced el- in Egyptian Arabic, not al-.
• In Egyptian Arabic, ق is often pronounced as a glottal stop, so قبل sounds like 'abl rather than qabl.
• ص at the end of الملخص is a strong/emphatic s sound.

In more formal speech, especially if someone is reading aloud in a Standard Arabic style, you may hear something closer to al-fihris qabl al-mulakhkhaṣ.

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

So:

• الفهرس قبل الملخص literally looks like the index before the summary
• but it naturally means The index is before the summary

This is very normal in both Standard Arabic and Egyptian Arabic.
If you wanted to make it more explicit in Egyptian speech, you could say something like:

• الفهرس بييجي قبل الملخص = The index comes before the summary

But the shorter version is completely fine.

Because الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• فهرس = an index / an index section / a table of contents depending on context
• الفهرس = the index
• ملخص = a summary / an abstract
• الملخص = the summary / the abstract

In this sentence, both items are specific, so both are definite.

Also, in both words, the ل of الـ is pronounced clearly because ف and م are moon letters, not sun letters.

قبل means before.

In this sentence, it links the two nouns:

• الفهرس قبل الملخص
• literally: the index before the summary
• naturally: The index is before the summary

A very helpful pattern is:

• X قبل Y = X is before Y
• X بعد Y = X is after Y

So if you learn this structure, you can reuse it easily.

It works in both, but it feels a bit more formal/written, which is why it looks very close to Standard Arabic.

A speaker of Egyptian Arabic would understand it easily, and might say the same thing in the right context, especially when talking about:

• books
• documents
• reports
• academic writing
• page layout

In very casual spoken Egyptian, someone might use a fuller sentence, such as:

• الفهرس بييجي قبل الملخص
• حطّ الفهرس قبل الملخص = Put the index before the summary

So the original sentence is perfectly understandable in Egyptian, but it has a slightly formal, written feel.

الفهرس can mean several related things, depending on context:

• index
• table of contents
• catalog
• listing

In a book or document, learners often first think of index, but sometimes table of contents is what is really meant.

So the exact English word depends on the document:

• in a book: maybe table of contents or index
• in a library/database context: maybe catalog
• in a report: some kind of contents/listing

Context tells you which English translation fits best.

الملخص usually means:

• summary
• abstract

In everyday or general contexts, summary is a good translation.

In academic or research writing, الملخص often means abstract, the short section at the beginning of a paper or report.

So if this sentence is about a report, thesis, or article, abstract may be the most natural English choice.

Arabic is presenting the first item, then saying where it is relative to the second item.

So:

• الفهرس قبل الملخص = The index is before the summary

The thing being talked about first is الفهرس.
Then قبل الملخص tells you its position.

This is a very normal Arabic pattern.
You could also reverse the idea and say:

• الملخص بعد الفهرس = The summary is after the index

That means essentially the same thing, but with a different starting point.

Not in Egyptian Arabic.

In normal Egyptian writing and speech, you do not pronounce or write the case endings. So you just use:

• الفهرس قبل الملخص

In fully vowelled Standard Arabic grammar, it would be analyzed with case endings, but learners of Egyptian generally do not need to produce them.

So for Egyptian Arabic, the short answer is:

• No, just learn and say it without case endings.

By itself, it is most naturally understood as a statement:

• The index is before the summary

But depending on context, short written Arabic phrases can sometimes feel like a layout note or organizational reminder, especially in documents.

If you want to make it clearly into an instruction in Egyptian Arabic, you would usually add a verb, for example:

• حطّ الفهرس قبل الملخص = Put the index before the summary
• خلّي الفهرس قبل الملخص = Make the index come before the summary

So the original sentence is mainly descriptive, but context can make it feel a bit like a note or heading.