الزواج مهم.

A common Levantine-style pronunciation is:

ez-zwāj mhimm

A more careful / more standard-style pronunciation would be:

az-zawāj muhimm

A few things to notice:

• الـ before ز does not sound like a clear al-
• ز is a sun letter, so the l sound assimilates
• مهم is often pronounced more lightly in speech, closer to mhimm than full muhimm

So if you are aiming for natural Levantine speech, ez-zwāj mhimm is a good approximation.

Because Arabic normally leaves out is / am / are in the present tense.

So:

• الزواج مهم = Marriage is important

This is called a nominal sentence: one noun or noun phrase, followed by a description.

If you want past or future, Arabic does use other words:

• كان الزواج مهم = Marriage was important
• رح يكون الزواج مهم = Marriage will be important

But in the present, no separate word for is is needed.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the.

So literally, الزواج is the marriage or marriage as a general concept.

In Arabic, abstract ideas are often expressed with the definite article, even when English does not use the. So:

• الزواج مهم sounds natural for Marriage is important
• Arabic uses the definite form where English often uses a bare noun

This is very common with broad ideas like:

• الحب مهم = Love is important
• التعليم مهم = Education is important

Because ز is one of the sun letters.

When الـ comes before a sun letter, the l sound is not pronounced. Instead, the next consonant is doubled.

So:

• written: الزواج
• pronounced: az-zawāj or in Levantine speech ez-zwāj

This happens with many words, for example:

• الشمس → ash-shams
• الزلمة → ez-zalame in Levantine-style pronunciation

So the spelling stays the same, but the pronunciation changes.

Because الزواج is grammatically masculine and singular, so the adjective also appears in the masculine singular form:

• الزواج مهم

If the noun were feminine, the adjective would usually be feminine too:

• الحياة مهمة = Life is important

This is basic adjective agreement in Arabic:

• masculine singular noun → masculine singular adjective
• feminine singular noun → feminine singular adjective

Because here مهم is the predicate of the sentence, not part of a noun phrase.

In Arabic, when you say X is important, the pattern is usually:

• definite subject + indefinite predicate

So:

• الزواج مهم = Marriage is important

If you said الزواج المهم, that would not mean marriage is important. It would mean something like:

• the important marriage

So in this sentence, مهم stays without الـ.

Not if you want the same meaning.

زواج مهم is usually understood as a noun phrase, meaning:

• an important marriage
• important marriage

It does not normally mean Marriage is important as a complete statement.

So:

• الزواج مهم = full sentence
• زواج مهم = noun phrase

That little الـ makes a big difference here.

It works in both.

The wording الزواج مهم is perfectly understandable and natural in Levantine, but it is also very close to Modern Standard Arabic. The main difference is usually in pronunciation, not in the basic words.

So you can think of it like this:

• same spelling can work in both
• pronunciation becomes more Levantine in speech
• in formal writing, it also looks fully standard

That is very common with short, simple sentences like this.

In normal Levantine speech, no.

You would simply say:

• الزواج مهم

without case endings.

In fully vocalized Modern Standard Arabic, it would be:

• الزواجُ مهمٌّ

But in spoken Levantine:

• case endings are not used
• short vowels are usually reduced or omitted in pronunciation

So for everyday speech, just learn the sentence as:

• ez-zwāj mhimm

Yes, absolutely.

Arabic does not need a verb in the present tense for this kind of sentence, so الزواج مهم is already a full, complete sentence.

Its structure is:

• الزواج = the topic / subject
• مهم = the comment / predicate

So even though it looks short, it is grammatically complete and perfectly natural.