المثقاب في صندوق الأدوات.

In Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually not stated.

So المثقاب في صندوق الأدوات literally looks like the drill in the toolbox, but it naturally means The drill is in the toolbox.

If you wanted was, will be, and so on, Arabic would normally use an actual verb, such as كان for was.

This is a nominal sentence in Arabic, meaning it begins with a noun rather than a verb.

Its two main parts are:

• المثقاب — the topic/subject
• في صندوق الأدوات — the predicate/comment, telling you where the drill is

In traditional grammar, these are called:

• مبتدأ for المثقاب
• خبر for في صندوق الأدوات

So a noun-first sentence like this is completely normal in Arabic.

It means the drill.

That is because المثقاب begins with الـ, the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the.

• المثقاب = the drill
• مثقابٌ = a drill

So this sentence is talking about a specific drill, not just any drill.

في is the preposition in.

So:

• في صندوق الأدوات = in the toolbox

Like English prepositions, Arabic prepositions affect the grammar of the word after them. Here, في makes صندوق take the genitive case in fully vocalized Arabic.

Because this is an iḍāfa construction, often called a possessive or of-phrase.

صندوق الأدوات literally means:

• box of the tools
• more naturally in English: toolbox

In an iḍāfa:

1. The first noun usually does not take الـ
2. The second noun determines whether the whole phrase is definite

So:

• صندوق الأدوات = the toolbox
• not الصندوق الأدوات

Even though صندوق has no الـ, the whole phrase is definite because الأدوات is definite.

Because Arabic expresses this idea as box of tools.

So:

• صندوق = box
• الأدوات = the tools

Together, صندوق الأدوات is the normal Arabic way to say toolbox.

This is very common across languages: one language may use a compound word like toolbox, while another uses a phrase like box of tools.

In fully vowelled Modern Standard Arabic, you would write it as:

المِثْقابُ في صُنْدوقِ الأَدَواتِ

Here is why:

• المثقابُ — nominative, because it is the مبتدأ
• صندوقِ — genitive, because it comes after في
• الأدواتِ — genitive, because it is the second noun in an iḍāfa

In everyday writing, these short vowel endings are usually omitted, so you normally see:

المثقاب في صندوق الأدوات

A helpful approximation is:

al-mith-qāb

A few sound notes:

• ث sounds like th in think
• ق is a deep q sound, farther back than English k
• ا in قاب is a long ā

So المثقاب is roughly:

al-mith-qāb

And the full sentence is approximately:

al-mithqāb fī ṣundūq al-adawāt

Yes, but the meaning or emphasis may change.

The given order:

المثقاب في صندوق الأدوات

is a neutral way to say:

The drill is in the toolbox.

If you move the prepositional phrase to the front, Arabic may sound more emphatic or stylistically marked.

Also compare:

في صندوق الأدوات مثقابٌ

This means more like:

There is a drill in the toolbox.

So for a beginner, the original order is the safest and most straightforward one to use.