في العمارة تسع شقق.

Here في means in.

So في العمارة means in the building.

This part sets the location first, and then the sentence tells you what is in that location.

In Egyptian Arabic, العمارة usually means the building, often specifically an apartment building or residential building.

It does not usually mean architecture here. So in this sentence, it refers to the physical building.

Arabic often starts with the place and then mentions what exists there.

So:

• في العمارة تسع شقق = In the building, there are nine apartments

This word order is very natural in Arabic. English usually prefers There are nine apartments in the building, but Arabic is happy to begin with the location.

It is not stated as a separate word here.

In Arabic, especially in simple present-tense sentences like this, the idea of there is / there are is often understood from the structure:

• في العمارة تسع شقق
• literally: In the building, nine apartments
• naturally: There are nine apartments in the building

So Arabic does not always need an explicit equivalent of there are.

This is because of how numbers from 3 to 10 work in Arabic.

The noun being counted is شقة = apartment, and شقة is a feminine noun.

With numbers 3–10, the number usually takes the opposite gender of the noun:

• feminine noun → masculine form of the number
• masculine noun → feminine form of the number

So because شقة is feminine, the sentence uses تسع rather than تسعة.

A very common clue is the ending ة.

The singular word is:

• شقة = apartment

Words ending in ة are very often feminine in Arabic, and شقة is one of them.

That is why the number follows the feminine-noun rule and becomes تسع.

Because with numbers 3 to 10, Arabic normally uses the plural form of the counted noun.

So:

• شقة = one apartment
• شقق = apartments

That is why you get:

• تسع شقق = nine apartments

In fuller formal grammar, this noun is also treated as genitive plural after numbers 3–10, but in normal unvoweled writing and in Egyptian speech, learners mostly just need to remember that the noun is plural here.

Because the sentence is talking about a specific building but an indefinite quantity of apartments inside it.

• العمارة = the building
• شقق = apartments

This is very common in existential-style sentences:

• definite place
• indefinite thing that exists in that place

So the pattern is basically:

• In the building
  • nine apartments

which means There are nine apartments in the building.

It can be understood in both.

The spelling في العمارة تسع شقق is close to a neutral written form that Arabic readers would understand easily. But العمارة in the sense of apartment building is very natural in Egyptian Arabic.

In actual Egyptian speech, the pronunciation would be colloquial, even if the spelling looks fairly standard.

A rough Egyptian pronunciation would be something like:

fi l-ʿamāra tisaʿ šoʔaʔ

A few notes:

• في sounds like fi
• العمارة is pronounced more like il-ʿamāra or el-ʿamāra
• تسع is pronounced tisaʿ
• شقق is pronounced differently from the formal written form; in Egyptian speech it sounds closer to the local plural pronunciation of شقة

You do not need to worry if your pronunciation is not perfect at first; the key grammar point is the number pattern.

Yes. That is also very natural in Egyptian Arabic.

• العمارة فيها تسع شقق
• literally: The building, in it, nine apartments
• naturally: The building has nine apartments / There are nine apartments in the building

This version is often more conversational because فيها clearly refers back to the building.

The singular is:

• شقة = apartment

The plural is:

• شقق = apartments

So the sentence is built from:

• في العمارة = in the building
• تسع = nine
• شقق = apartments

The number would switch to the opposite form.

For a masculine noun, you would normally use تسعة.

So the contrast is:

• تسع شقق = nine apartments because شقة is feminine
• تسعة
  • masculine noun = nine with a masculine counted noun

This opposite-gender pattern is one of the most important things to remember for Arabic numbers from 3 to 10.