العمل يتوقف الآن.

In careful MSA pronunciation, it is:

الْعَمَلُ يَتَوَقَّفُ الآنَ
al-ʿamalu yatawaqqafu al-ʾāna

In normal pause, speakers often do not pronounce the final short case endings, so it may sound closer to:

al-ʿamal yatawaqqaf al-ʾān

The symbol ʿ represents the Arabic letter ع, and ʾ represents hamza.

Because ع and أ/ء are moon letters, not sun letters.

So:

• العمل is pronounced al-ʿamal, not aʿ-ʿamal
• الآن is pronounced al-ʾān, not aʾ-ʾān

The ل of الـ only assimilates before sun letters such as ت، د، س، ش، ن and others.

Yes, الـ is the definite article, so العمل literally means the work.

But in Arabic, a definite noun can also be used in a more general or abstract sense, depending on context. So العمل may refer to:

• a specific piece of work
• work in a general sense
• labor/activity as a concept

The context tells you which sense is intended.

Arabic does not normally use a present-tense verb meaning to be in sentences like this.

English says:

• The work is stopping now

Arabic simply says:

• العمل يتوقف الآن

The verb يتوقف already carries the present-time meaning, so no extra word for is is needed.

يتوقف is an imperfect verb, third-person masculine singular.

It comes from the past-tense verb توقّفَ, meaning to stop / to come to a stop.

Its root is و-ق-ف, which is connected with the idea of stopping or standing.

So:

• توقّفَ = he stopped / it stopped
• يتوقفُ = he stops / it stops / is stopping

Because العمل is grammatically singular masculine.

In Arabic, the verb agrees with the subject in gender and number here, so the verb is also masculine singular:

• العمل = singular masculine
• يتوقف = third-person singular masculine

Even though English work is not strongly felt as masculine or feminine, Arabic nouns have grammatical gender, and عمل is masculine.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

The Arabic imperfect often covers both:

• simple present: stops
• present progressive: is stopping

Because the sentence includes الآن (now), the most natural reading is usually:

• is stopping now or
• is coming to a stop now

So الآن helps make the time reference feel immediate and current.

It is usually analyzed as a nominal sentence because it begins with a noun:

• العمل = the topic / subject
• يتوقف الآن = the predicate, which is a verbal clause

So literally it is something like:

• The work — it is stopping now

If the verb came first, as in يتوقف العمل الآن, that would be a more straightforward verbal sentence.

Yes. That is also correct Arabic.

Both are possible:

• العمل يتوقف الآن
• يتوقف العمل الآن

The difference is mainly one of style, structure, and emphasis.

Very roughly:

• العمل يتوقف الآن puts العمل first as the topic
• يتوقف العمل الآن starts directly with the action

In many contexts, both would be understood the same way.

In fully vocalized MSA, you would usually write:

العملُ يتوقفُ الآنَ

Here:

• العملُ has ḍamma because it is the subject/topic in the sentence
• يتوقفُ has ḍamma because the imperfect verb is in the normal indicative form
• الآنَ is a time adverb and is pronounced with final fatḥa in full reading

In everyday speech and in pause, these final short vowels are often not pronounced.

Yes, توقّف is normally intransitive, meaning to stop or to come to a stop.

So العمل يتوقف الآن means the work itself is stopping.

If you want to say that someone stops the work, Arabic usually uses a more clearly transitive verb such as أوقفَ:

• يوقفُ العملَ = he stops the work

So the contrast is roughly:

• يتوقف العمل = the work stops
• يوقف شخصٌ العملَ = someone stops the work

For present-time negation, use لا before the imperfect verb:

العمل لا يتوقف الآن

This means:

• The work is not stopping now
• The work does not stop now, depending on context

If you wanted a past meaning such as did not stop, you would use a different structure, for example:

لم يتوقف العمل = the work did not stop