الحكم استعمل الصفارة.

A natural Levantine-style pronunciation is:

el-ḥakam staʿmal eṣ-ṣaffāra

A few pronunciation notes:

• ḥ is a strong, breathy h sound, not the ordinary English h
• ʿ is the sound of ع, which has no exact English equivalent
• ṣ is an emphatic s
• eṣ-ṣaffāra happens because the l of ال blends into the next sound; that is very common in Arabic

You may also hear istaʿmal instead of staʿmal, depending on the speaker and how carefully they are speaking.

In this sentence, الحكم is understood as the referee.

Arabic script usually leaves out short vowels, so الحكم can represent different words depending on context, including:

• el-ḥakam = the referee
• el-ḥukm = the judgment / the ruling

So the spelling is the same, but the meaning and pronunciation change with context. In a sentence about using a whistle, the referee is the natural reading.

استعمل is the past tense verb, meaning used.

So grammatically, it is:

• استعمل = he used

Because the subject is الحكم and that noun is masculine singular, the verb is also masculine singular.

In everyday Levantine, استعمل is a normal verb for use. It can mean:

• used
• employed
• made use of

Because in Levantine Arabic, subject–verb–object order is very common in everyday speech.

So:

• الحكم استعمل الصفارة = subject first

This feels very natural in spoken Levantine.

You could also find استعمل الحكم الصفارة, with the verb first, but that sounds more formal, more literary, or more like written Arabic. For a learner of spoken Levantine, the version with the subject first is very useful and natural.

This is because ص is a sun letter.

When ال comes before a sun letter, the l sound of ال is not pronounced separately. Instead, it blends into the next consonant.

So:

• written: الصفارة
• pronounced: eṣ-ṣaffāra

The spelling stays the same, but the pronunciation changes.

Yes. الصفارة is grammatically feminine. You can see that from the ending ة.

But in this sentence, that does not change the verb, because the verb agrees with the subject, not the object.

Here:

• subject = الحكم = masculine singular
• object = الصفارة = feminine singular

So the verb is masculine singular:

• استعمل = he used

If the subject were feminine, then the verb form would change.

Yes, both nouns are definite here:

• الحكم = the referee
• الصفارة = the whistle

You can remove ال if the meaning is indefinite:

• حكم = a referee
• صفارة = a whistle

So:

• الحكم استعمل الصفارة = the referee used the whistle
• حكم استعمل صفارة = a referee used a whistle

Whether you use ال depends on the context and whether the listener already knows which referee and which whistle you mean.

It is natural and completely understandable, especially if you want to emphasize used the whistle.

But in real-life sports situations, a speaker might also say:

• الحكم صفّر = the referee blew the whistle
• الحكم صفّر بالصفارة = the referee whistled / blew the whistle

So the difference is:

• استعمل الصفارة focuses on using the whistle
• صفّر focuses on the act of blowing it

Both are useful, but صفّر may sound more idiomatic in a sports context.

Yes, this is an important habit to build.

Arabic usually does not write short vowels, so learners have to use:

• context
• vocabulary knowledge
• grammar

For example:

• الحكم could be read more than one way
• استعمل could be pronounced slightly differently in careful vs everyday speech
• الصفارة is written one way but pronounced with sun-letter assimilation

So when reading Arabic, you are not just reading letters. You are also choosing the correct pronunciation from context. This sentence is a good example of that.