البرد شديد.

A common Egyptian pronunciation is:

el-bard shedeed

You may also see it written as il-bard shadīd or el-bard shadid in transliteration.

A few helpful notes:

• الـ is usually pronounced el- or il- in Egyptian, not al-.
• برد sounds like bard.
• شديد in Egyptian speech is often closer to shedeed.

So altogether: el-bard shedeed.

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

So:

• البرد شديد = The cold is severe / It is very cold

This is a very normal Arabic pattern, called a nominal sentence.

Compare:

• البرد شديد = The cold is severe / It’s very cold
• كان البرد شديد = The cold was severe

So in the present, Arabic often just puts the subject and the description together, with no separate word for is.

البرد literally means the cold.

In English, we often say:

• It’s cold
• The weather is cold

But Arabic often phrases this idea as:

• The cold is severe
• The cold is strong

So even though the literal wording is different, the natural meaning is the same kind of idea.

Also, this is برد the noun (cold / coldness), not بارد the adjective (cold).

This is a very common question.

• برد = cold as a noun
  
  • like coldness or the cold
• بارد = cold as an adjective
  
  • describing something

Examples:

• البرد شديد = The cold is severe
• الجو بارد = The weather is cold

So in your sentence, البرد is not describing something as cold. It is naming the cold itself.

Because in Arabic, words that describe a noun usually come after it.

Here, شديد means something like:

• severe
• intense
• strong

So the structure is:

• البرد = the cold
• شديد = severe / intense

Arabic says this in the order:

• the cold severe

which English translates as:

• the cold is severe
• it’s very cold

So the word order is normal for Arabic.

Because البرد is grammatically masculine singular, so the describing word must match it.

That means Arabic uses:

• البرد شديد

not:

• البرد شديدة

This is part of Arabic agreement: adjectives and predicate words usually match the noun in gender and number.

Excellent question.

In البرد شديد, شديد does not take الـ because it is the predicate of the sentence: it is telling you something about البرد.

So:

• البرد شديد = The cold is severe

But if you say:

• البرد الشديد

that is no longer a full sentence. It means:

• the severe cold

So the difference is:

• البرد شديد = a sentence
• البرد الشديد = a noun phrase

That is a very important distinction in Arabic.

It is understandable and correct, and it sounds fairly neutral to formal.

In everyday Egyptian Arabic, people might also say things like:

• الجو برد = It’s cold
• الدنيا برد = It’s cold out
• الجو ساقعة / سقعة in very colloquial speech, depending on region and style
• البرد شديد أوي = It’s very cold

So البرد شديد is good Arabic, but in casual daily Egyptian conversation, there are other very common ways to express the same idea.

Not literally.

شديد literally means:

• severe
• intense
• strong

So البرد شديد literally means:

• The cold is severe
• The cold is intense

But in natural English, that often comes out simply as:

• It’s very cold

So شديد is not exactly the same as very, but it can produce that meaning in translation.

You can strengthen it in a few ways.

For example:

• البرد شديد جداً = The cold is very severe / It’s very cold
• البرد شديد أوي = It’s really very cold (Egyptian colloquial)

A useful distinction:

• جداً is more standard/formal
• أوي is very common in Egyptian speech

So if you want a more everyday Egyptian feel, أوي is especially useful.