الطفل في الحديقة.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually omitted in simple statements like this.

So الطفل في الحديقة literally looks like the child in the garden, but it means The child is in the garden.

If you want another tense, Arabic usually adds a verb:

• كان الطفل في الحديقة = The child was in the garden
• سيكون الطفل في الحديقة = The child will be in the garden

الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• طفل = child / a child
• الطفل = the child
• حديقة = garden / a garden
• الحديقة = the garden

Because both nouns have الـ, the sentence refers to a specific child and a specific garden.

A careful fully vowelled pronunciation is:

aṭ-ṭiflu fī al-ḥadīqati

Two useful pronunciation points:

• الطفل is pronounced aṭ-ṭifl..., not al-ṭifl..., because ط is a sun letter, so the l sound of الـ assimilates.
• الحديقة keeps the l sound of الـ, because ح is a moon letter.

In normal pause, learners often hear something closer to:

aṭ-ṭifl fī al-ḥadīqah

This is a normal nominal sentence in Arabic.

• الطفل is the topic/subject (mubtadaʾ)
• في الحديقة is the predicate (khabar)

So the structure is basically:

the child + in the garden

That is a very common way to say where someone or something is.

Arabic can sometimes change the order for emphasis, but الطفل في الحديقة is the straightforward, neutral order here.

في usually means in, inside, or sometimes at, depending on context.

It is also a preposition, and in Arabic prepositions make the following noun genitive.

So in a fully vowelled version, you get:

• في الحديقةِ

The -i ending on الحديقةِ shows the genitive case.

In full formal vowelled Arabic, the sentence is:

الطفلُ في الحديقةِ

The endings are:

• الطفلُ — nominative, because it is the subject/topic of the nominal sentence
• الحديقةِ — genitive, because it comes after the preposition في

In everyday reading and speech, these short case endings are often not pronounced clearly, especially at pause, but they are part of standard grammar.

There is no tanwīn because both nouns are definite.

Tanwīn usually appears on indefinite nouns, for example:

• طفلٌ = a child
• حديقةٍ = a garden

But with الـ, the nouns are definite:

• الطفل
• الحديقة

So tanwīn is not used.

Yes, حديقة is grammatically feminine.

A common clue is the ending ـة (tāʾ marbūṭa), which often marks feminine nouns.

A few useful things about this ending:

• In pause, it usually sounds like -ah: ḥadīqah
• When case endings are added, it is pronounced with a t sound: ḥadīqati

So in في الحديقةِ, the final ـة is part of الحديقةِ and is pronounced with the grammatical ending.

The simplest indefinite version is:

طفلٌ في الحديقةِ

That means A child is in the garden.

However, for an existential meaning like There is a child in the garden, Arabic often prefers:

هناك طفلٌ في الحديقةِ

So:

• الطفل في الحديقة = The child is in the garden
• طفلٌ في الحديقةِ = A child is in the garden
• هناك طفلٌ في الحديقةِ = There is a child in the garden