الكنباية تقيلة.

Because in Levantine Arabic, the present tense of to be is usually left out. So الكنباية تقيلة literally looks like the sofa heavy, but it means the sofa is heavy.

If you change the tense, then a verb appears:

• الكنباية كانت تقيلة = the sofa was heavy
• الكنباية رح تكون تقيلة = the sofa will be heavy

It is a full sentence: The sofa is heavy.

If you want the heavy sofa, you would normally say الكنباية التقيلة. That is a noun phrase, not a sentence.

So:

• الكنباية تقيلة = the sofa is heavy
• الكنباية التقيلة = the heavy sofa

Because here تقيلة is the predicate of the sentence, not part of the noun phrase.

In Arabic, when an adjective is used predicatively, as in the sofa is heavy, it normally does not take الـ. But when it directly describes a noun inside a noun phrase, it matches the noun in definiteness:

• الكنباية تقيلة = the sofa is heavy
• الكنباية التقيلة = the heavy sofa

That contrast is very important.

Because الكنباية is grammatically feminine, so the describing word has to be feminine too.

In Levantine:

• masculine: تقيل = heavy
• feminine: تقيلة = heavy

So:

• الكرسي تقيل = the chair is heavy
• الكنباية تقيلة = the sofa is heavy

A rough Levantine pronunciation is il-kanabāye tʔīle or il-kanabāye tqīle, depending on the speaker.

A few useful points:

• الـ here is pronounced, because ك is not a sun letter.
• تقيلة often sounds like tʔīle in urban Levantine, because ق is often pronounced as a glottal stop.
• Some speakers keep ق as q, so you may also hear tqīle.

Yes. تقيلة is the Levantine colloquial form corresponding to Standard Arabic ثقيلة.

Two common dialect changes are happening:

• Standard ث often becomes ت in colloquial speech
• Standard ق may become a glottal stop ء in many urban Levantine accents

So Standard ثقيلة becomes something like تئيلة / تقيلة in everyday Levantine pronunciation/spelling.

In Levantine, final ة is very often pronounced -e in pause, not -a like many learners expect from Standard Arabic.

So:

• تقيلة sounds like tʔīle or tqīle
• not like thaqīla

This -e ending is one of the most noticeable features of Levantine pronunciation.

It is a common colloquial word for sofa/couch in the Levant, and it is generally treated as an everyday spoken word rather than a formal Standard Arabic one.

In formal Standard Arabic, you are more likely to see أريكة for sofa/couch. But in normal Levantine conversation, كنباية is very natural.

You can, but it usually will not mean the same thing in a neutral context.

• الكنباية تقيلة = the sofa is heavy
• كنباية تقيلة more naturally sounds like a heavy sofa

So if you mean a specific sofa that both speakers know about, الكنباية is the safer choice.

Arabic normally places adjectives after the noun, not before it.

So:

• كنباية تقيلة = a heavy sofa
• الكنباية التقيلة = the heavy sofa

And in a sentence like الكنباية تقيلة, the word after the noun is functioning as the predicate: the sofa is heavy.

A natural Levantine way is:

الكنباية مش تقيلة

Here مش negates the sentence. There is still no present-tense is.

In some areas, you may also hear مو instead of مش, but مش is very widely understood.

You would say:

الكنباية كانت تقيلة

Here كانت is the past form of to be, and it is feminine because الكنباية is feminine.

Compare:

• الكنباية تقيلة = the sofa is heavy
• الكنباية كانت تقيلة = the sofa was heavy