هي فتحت الرسالة على التليفون.

هي means she.

In Egyptian Arabic, it is usually pronounced something like heyya or hiyya. You will hear slight variation depending on the speaker.

So at the start of this sentence, هي is simply the subject: she.

That is a very common question.

In Arabic, the verb فتحت already tells you the subject is she, because the verb form is feminine singular past.

So هي is not absolutely necessary. The sentence could also be:

فتحت الرسالة على التليفون

Adding هي can:

• make the subject extra clear
• sound more natural in some conversational contexts
• add slight emphasis, like she opened the message

So هي is often there for clarity or emphasis, not because the sentence would be impossible without it.

فتحت is the past tense (more exactly, the perfect form).

It describes a completed action: she opened.

In Egyptian Arabic, this is the normal way to talk about something that happened and is finished.

The -ت at the end marks the verb as feminine singular in the past tense.

Compare:

• فتح = he opened
• فتحت = she opened

So this final -ت is one of the most useful patterns to learn in Arabic verb conjugation.

It is commonly pronounced roughly as fataḥet or fataḥit.

Both kinds of transliteration are used, because short vowels in Egyptian Arabic are often represented a little differently in English letters.

The important part is:

• fataḥ- = the verb stem
• final -t = feminine past

Yes, it is natural.

Egyptian Arabic allows more than one word order. Starting with هي gives you a clear subject + verb structure:

• هي فتحت الرسالة = She opened the message

You could also hear:

• فتحت الرسالة = She opened the message
• هي فتحت الرسالة = also natural, with the subject stated explicitly

So this sentence sounds normal and conversational.

الرسالة can mean:

• a letter
• a message
• sometimes a text/message depending on context

In modern everyday context, especially with على التليفون, it very naturally means the message.

So the exact English word depends on context, even though the Arabic word itself is the same.

The final ة is called taa marbuuTa. In this word, it usually sounds like -a in normal pronunciation.

So رسالة is pronounced roughly risaala in careful transliteration, and in Egyptian more like risāla.

A very important point:

• in pause or normal citation form, ة usually sounds like -a
• it is not pronounced as a full t here

So الرسالة is not pronounced ar-risalat in normal Egyptian speech. It is more like er-risāla.

على usually means on.

In Egyptian Arabic, على is very commonly used for things that happen on a device, screen, app, or phone. So على التليفون naturally means something like:

• on the phone
• on the device

That matches English quite well here.

So in this sentence, على التليفون tells you where she opened the message: on the phone.

This is a great pronunciation question.

In both words, the ل of الـ is absorbed because the next letter is a sun letter.

So:

• الرسالة is pronounced roughly er-risāla
• التليفون is pronounced roughly et-telefōn or it-tilifōn

Why?

• ر in الرسالة is a sun letter
• ت in التليفون is also a sun letter

So although the spelling keeps الـ, the pronunciation doubles the next consonant instead of saying the l clearly.

Both are used.

تليفون is very common and completely normal. It can mean phone in general.

But in everyday Egyptian speech, many people also say موبايل for mobile phone / cellphone.

So depending on the speaker, you might hear:

• على التليفون
• على الموبايل

Both are natural. In a sentence about opening a message, على الموبايل may even sound especially everyday and modern.

Yes, but it would change the meaning.

Here:

• الرسالة = the message
• التليفون = the phone

If you remove الـ, you get:

• رسالة = a message
• تليفون = a phone

So the sentence as written refers to a specific message and a specific phone, not just any message or any phone.