الحظ مهم باللعبة.

Luck is important in the game.

Breakdown of الحظ مهم باللعبة.

• مهم: important
• لعبة: game
• حظ: luck

Questions & Answers about الحظ مهم باللعبة.

What does each word in الحظ مهم باللعبة mean?

A natural word-for-word breakdown is:

• الحظ = luck
• مهم = important
• باللعبة = in the game

So the full sentence means something like:

• Luck is important in the game
• or Luck matters in the game

A more literal order in English would be:

• The luck important in-the-game

But that is just because Arabic structures this kind of sentence differently from English.

Why is there no word for is in the sentence?

In Levantine Arabic, as in Arabic generally, the verb to be is usually not expressed in the present tense.

So:

• الحظ مهم = Luck is important

There is no separate word for is here.

This is very normal in Arabic. Compare:

• هو تعبان = He is tired
• البيت كبير = The house is big
• الحظ مهم = Luck is important

If you wanted past or future, then Arabic would use other forms, but in the present, the copula is usually just omitted.

Why does الحظ have الـ? Why not just حظ?