المي هون ضحلة.

A common Levantine pronunciation is el-mayy hon ḍaḥle or il-mayy hon ḍaḥle.

A few helpful notes:

• المي = el-mayy / il-mayy
• هون = hon
• ضحلة = ḍaḥle

Pronunciation details:

• ض is a heavy/emphatic d
• ح is a stronger, breathier h than ه
• the final ة in Levantine is usually pronounced -e here, so ضحلة sounds like ḍaḥle

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

So a sentence like المي هون ضحلة is completely normal and literally structured more like:

the-water here shallow

That is how Arabic says The water here is shallow in the present.

If you want past or future, then a verb does appear, for example:

• كانت المي هون ضحلة = the water here was shallow
• رح تكون المي هون ضحلة = the water here will be shallow

Because مي in Levantine is usually treated as a feminine noun, so the adjective agrees with it.

So:

• ضحلة = feminine
• ضحل = masculine

That is why you get المي هون ضحلة.

This is a useful thing to notice because in Modern Standard Arabic, ماء is usually masculine, so the standard version would normally use ضحل, not ضحلة.

Because مي or ميّة is the everyday Levantine word for water.

• مي / ميّة = colloquial Levantine
• ماء = Modern Standard Arabic / formal Arabic

So this sentence sounds natural in spoken Levantine. A more formal/standard version would be:

الماء هنا ضحل

Because م is a moon letter, not a sun letter.

That means the ل of الـ stays pronounced:

• المي → el-mayy / il-mayy

It does not assimilate into the م. So you do not say em-mayy.

هون means here. It is an adverb of place.

In this sentence, it tells you the location where the description is true: the water, here, is shallow.

So the sentence is built like this:

• المي = the water
• هون = here
• ضحلة = shallow

This word order is very natural in Levantine.

Yes. Arabic has more word-order flexibility than English, and different orders can shift the emphasis a little.

For example:

• المي هون ضحلة = neutral, very natural
• هون المي ضحلة = puts more focus on here
• المي ضحلة هون = can sound like you are contrasting this place with another place

So the original order is not the only possible one, but it is a very normal everyday way to say it.

Arabic often uses the definite article when talking about a specific thing in the situation, even with mass nouns like water.

Here, المي means something like the water here or this water in context.

English sometimes leaves out the, but Arabic often prefers the definite form in sentences like this when the speaker means a particular, identifiable water source or stretch of water.

A typical Modern Standard Arabic version would be:

الماء هنا ضحل

The differences are:

• المي → الماء
• هون → هنا
• ضحلة → ضحل

That last change happens because الماء is usually masculine in Standard Arabic, while مي in Levantine is commonly treated as feminine.