العالم كبير.

A common Levantine pronunciation is il-ʿālam kbīr or l-ʿālam kbīr, depending on the speaker and what comes before it.

A few notes:

• العالم = il-ʿālam / l-ʿālam
• كبير = kbīr in everyday Levantine speech
• The letter ع is the sound ʿayn, which does not exist in English. You produce it deep in the throat.
• The k in kbīr is usually pronounced clearly, even though English speakers may want to insert a vowel and say ka-bīr. In Levantine, kbīr is normal.

In Arabic, present-tense sentences like this usually do not use a word for is.

So:

• العالم كبير literally looks like the world big
• but it means the world is big

This is called a nominal sentence. In the present tense, Arabic normally leaves out is / am / are.

If you wanted the past tense, then Arabic would use a verb, like كان for was.

Because in Arabic, descriptive words normally come after the noun.

So Arabic says:

• العالم كبير literally:
• the world big

This is normal word order in Arabic. English usually puts adjectives before nouns in phrases like a big world, but in sentences like the world is big, Arabic still places the describing word after the noun.

Because here كبير is the predicate of the sentence, not an adjective inside a noun phrase.

Compare these:

• العالم كبير = The world is big
• العالم الكبير = the big world

In العالم كبير, the second word is telling you something about the world, so it stays indefinite-looking.

In العالم الكبير, الكبير is directly modifying العالم, so it also takes الـ.

This is a very important distinction in Arabic.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, the equivalent of the in English.

So:

• عالم can mean something like world or scientist, depending on vowels and context
• العالم means the world or the scientist, again depending on context and pronunciation

In this sentence, it marks the first word as definite: the world.

It works in both.

The spelling العالم كبير is completely natural in Modern Standard Arabic and also fine in written Levantine.

The main difference is usually in pronunciation:

• Standard Arabic: al-ʿālam kabīr
• Levantine: il-ʿālam kbīr or l-ʿālam kbīr

So the structure is the same, but the spoken form shifts in Levantine.

Because Arabic usually does not write short vowels, the spelling العالم can represent more than one word.

Most importantly:

• العالَم = the world
• العالِم = the scientist / the scholar in Standard Arabic
• In Levantine, scientist/scholar is often pronounced more like il-ʿālem

So the written form can be ambiguous, but:

• context usually tells you which meaning is intended
• if vowels are added, the difference becomes clear

In your sentence, the intended reading is the world.

Yes, it matters. In Arabic, descriptive words agree with the noun in gender and number.

Here, العالم is treated as masculine singular, so the predicate is:

• كبير = masculine singular

If the noun were feminine, you would use:

• كبيرة

For example:

• البنت كبيرة = the girl is big

So كبير matches العالم grammatically.

No. Here الـ is pronounced normally because ع is a moon letter, not a sun letter.

So you pronounce the l sound:

• il-ʿālam not
• iʿ-ʿālam

This is different from words beginning with sun letters, where the l sound assimilates. For example:

• الشمس is pronounced more like ish-shams

But with ع, the l stays.

In writing, it is the same word: كبير.

In pronunciation:

• Standard Arabic often sounds like kabīr
• Levantine usually sounds more like kbīr

That dropped short vowel at the beginning is very common in Levantine. So if you are speaking colloquially, kbīr will sound more natural.