أبي يصلح الرف.

أبي means my father.

It is made from:

• أب = father
• ـي = my

So:

• أب → father
• أبي → my father

That final ـي is an attached possessive pronoun.

It is pronounced abī.

A few helpful points:

• the first vowel is short: a
• the last vowel is long: ī
• so it sounds like a-BEE, but with the stress and sounds of Arabic

In the full sentence, a careful pronunciation would be:

• abī yuṣliḥu ar-raffa

Here, يصلح means he repairs or he fixes.

In fully vowelled form, it would be:

• يُصلِحُ

That is from the verb أصلحَ = to repair / to fix / to put right.

A useful thing to know: because short vowels are usually not written in normal Arabic text, يصلح could look ambiguous by itself. Context tells you how to read it here.

Because normal Arabic writing usually leaves out short vowels.

So يصلح is written without the vowel marks, but the reader is expected to know the correct reading from context.

Here the intended reading is:

• يُصلِحُ = he repairs

Without context, the same letters could potentially be read differently. This is very normal in Arabic.

Yes. It is in the imperfect form, which often covers what English expresses as:

• repairs
• is repairing
• sometimes even will repair, depending on context

So Arabic does not always make the same distinction English does between:

• My father repairs the shelf
• My father is repairing the shelf

Context decides which is most natural.

Because Arabic does not need an extra helper word here.

The verb يُصلِحُ already means:

• he repairs
• he is repairing

So Arabic does not add a separate word like does or is in this kind of present-tense sentence.

Both are possible in Arabic.

• أبي يصلح الرف = My father repairs the shelf
• يصلح أبي الرف = also My father repairs the shelf

The difference is mainly one of style, information flow, or emphasis.

Starting with أبي puts the subject first, a bit like highlighting my father.
Starting with the verb is also very common in Arabic.

So this sentence uses subject + verb + object, but verb + subject + object would also be grammatical.

الرف means the shelf.

It is made from:

• رفّ = shelf
• الـ = the

So:

• رفّ = a shelf / shelf
• الرف = the shelf

The الـ is the definite article, like English the.

Because ر is a sun letter.

When الـ comes before a sun letter, the l sound of الـ assimilates to the next consonant.

So:

• الرف
• written with ال
• pronounced ar-raff

Also note:

• the ر is doubled in pronunciation because of this assimilation
• the word رفّ itself has a doubled ف sound as well

So the pronunciation is roughly:

• ar-raff

Because it is the thing receiving the action.

In أبي يصلح الرف:

• أبي = the doer of the action
• يصلح = the action
• الرف = the thing being fixed

So الرف is the direct object.

In a fully vowelled formal version, you could write the sentence as:

• أبي يُصلِحُ الرَّفَّ

where the final vowel on الرَّفَّ shows it is the object.

A fully vowelled version is:

• أبي يُصلِحُ الرَّفَّ

This helps show the intended reading:

• أبي = my father
• يُصلِحُ = repairs / is repairing
• الرَّفَّ = the shelf

In everyday Arabic texts, these vowel marks are usually omitted, so you normally see:

• أبي يصلح الرف