الباب صغير.

A common Levantine pronunciation is il-bāb zġīr.

• ال is usually pronounced il- in Levantine.
• باب is bāb, with a long ā.
• صغير is often pronounced zġīr in everyday Levantine, even though it is spelled صغير.
• غ is a deep throaty sound, somewhat similar to a French-style r.

In more formal Arabic, you may hear something closer to al-bāb ṣaghīr.

Because ال is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the, and it is written attached to the noun.

So:

• باب = door
• الباب = the door

In Arabic script, this article is not written as a separate word.

In Arabic, simple present-tense sentences often do not use a word for is.

So Arabic can say:

• الباب صغير

literally something like:

• the door small

but the meaning is naturally understood as:

• the door is small

This is very normal in both Levantine and Standard Arabic.
If you want was, will be, and so on, then Arabic does use extra words, such as forms of كان.

Because Arabic normally puts adjectives after the noun they describe.

So unlike English:

• small door

Arabic uses:

• door small

That noun-then-adjective order is one of the most basic word-order differences English speakers have to get used to.

Because in الباب صغير, صغير is not part of the noun phrase the small door. It is the predicate of the sentence: it tells you something about the door.

So:

• الباب صغير = The door is small
• الباب الصغير = the small door

That is an important difference.

A good shortcut:

• noun + adjective without a present-tense verb often means X is Y
• definite noun + definite adjective often means a single phrase like the small door

Because باب is a masculine noun, so the adjective also appears in the masculine singular form:

• باب صغير

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

• السيارة صغيرة = The car is small

So adjectives in Arabic usually agree with the noun in gender and number.

The basic structure is the same, but the pronunciation is different.

In Levantine, you are likely to hear:

• il-bāb zġīr

In Modern Standard Arabic, a careful reading would be more like:

• al-bābu ṣaghīrun

But in everyday speech, Levantine drops the case endings and uses its own normal pronunciation.

So for a learner of Levantine, the most useful everyday form is:

• il-bāb zġīr