المتطوع اطعم الكلب.

It is understandable, but it looks more formal / MSA-like than everyday Levantine.

The main reason is the verb اطعم (aṭʿam = fed in formal Arabic). In everyday Levantine, speakers are more likely to say:

المتطوع طعّم الكلب

So if you are learning spoken Levantine, طعّم is the form you will probably hear more often than أطعم.

Also, in real speech, المتطوع may be pronounced in a more reduced colloquial way, not as carefully as in formal Arabic.

Because subject–verb–object order is very common in Levantine.

So this sentence is structured like:

• المتطوع = the volunteer
• اطعم = fed
• الكلب = the dog

That is very similar to English word order.

In more formal Arabic, you can often also get verb-first order, for example:

أطعم المتطوع الكلب

But in Levantine, subject-first is especially common in normal speech. Since spoken Levantine does not use case endings the way formal Arabic does, word order helps make things clearer.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• المتطوع = the volunteer
• الكلب = the dog

In this sentence, both nouns are definite, so the speaker is talking about a specific volunteer and a specific dog, or at least ones that are already known from context.

Also, the ل of الـ is pronounced normally here, because م and ك are not sun letters.

So you would pronounce them roughly as:

• il-m...
• il-k...

not with assimilation.

That is a very good question, because Arabic script usually leaves out short vowels, so اطعم can be ambiguous by itself.

Depending on vowels, it could represent different things, including:

• أَطْعَمَ = he fed (formal past tense)
• اِطْعَمْ = feed! (imperative, in formal spelling)

You know the intended meaning from context.

Here, the structure is:

• noun: المتطوع
• verb: اطعم
• object: الكلب

So it reads as a statement, not a command.

In spoken Levantine, this ambiguity is often reduced because people usually use a different verb form anyway, such as طعّم.

The root is ط ع م.

This root is connected with food / eating / feeding. You can see it in related words such as:

• طعام = food
• طعّم / أطعم = feed

So اطعم literally comes from a food-related root and means caused to eat / fed.

This is different from the verb أكل = ate.

Compare:

• الكلب أكل = the dog ate
• المتطوع أطعم الكلب = the volunteer fed the dog

So the sentence uses the causative idea: the volunteer made the dog eat.

If you read the sentence as written in a more formal way, it would be something like:

il-mutaṭawweʕ aṭʿam il-kalb

But in more natural spoken Levantine, you are more likely to hear something closer to:

il-mṭawweʕ ṭaʕʕam il-kalb

A few pronunciation notes:

• ط is an emphatic t
• ع is the consonant often written as ʕ in transliteration
• الـ is often pronounced il- or el- in Levantine, depending on speaker and region

So learners should know that the written form may look more formal than what people actually say in conversation.

Because the verb feed takes a direct object in Arabic, just as it often does in English.

So Arabic simply says:

fed the dog

There is no need for a preposition like to here.

That means:

• المتطوع = subject
• اطعم = verb
• الكلب = direct object

This is normal Arabic grammar.

Yes.

Here, المتطوع is masculine singular, and the verb is also masculine singular past.

If the subject changed, the verb would also change.

For example:

• المتطوعة طعّمت الكلب = the female volunteer fed the dog
• المتطوعين طعّموا الكلب = the volunteers fed the dog

So Arabic verbs agree with the subject in person, gender, and number.

Because this sentence is being treated like Levantine / everyday Arabic, where case endings are normally not pronounced.

In formal fully vocalized MSA, you might see endings that show grammatical role, but in spoken Levantine those endings disappear.

So in everyday speech, you usually hear just:

• المتطوع
• الكلب

without formal endings.

This is one reason why word order becomes especially important in spoken Arabic.