الزائر جاهز.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the present tense of to be is usually not written or spoken in simple statements like this.

So الزائر جاهز literally looks like the visitor ready, but it means the visitor is ready.

This kind of sentence is called a nominal sentence. In the present tense, Arabic just puts the subject and the predicate next to each other.

Compare:

• الزائر جاهز = The visitor is ready
• كان الزائر جاهزًا = The visitor was ready
• سيكون الزائر جاهزًا = The visitor will be ready

So the missing is is completely normal.

Because الزائر is the subject and جاهز is the predicate.

• الزائر = the visitor
• جاهز = ready

In a sentence like this, the predicate adjective is normally indefinite, so it does not take الـ.

This distinction is very important:

• الزائر جاهز = The visitor is ready ← full sentence
• الزائر الجاهز = the ready visitor ← noun phrase, not a full sentence

So leaving جاهز without الـ helps show that this is a sentence, not just a noun + adjective phrase.

It is basically an adjective meaning ready, but in this sentence it is functioning as the predicate of the sentence.

So grammatically:

• الزائر = the subject
• جاهز = the predicate describing the subject

English also uses adjectives this way:

• The visitor is ready
• The room is clean
• The food is hot

Arabic does the same thing, but without the present-tense is.

In Arabic, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So if you want to say the ready visitor, you say:

• الزائر الجاهز

And in the sentence:

• الزائر جاهز

the descriptive word جاهز also comes after الزائر.

This matches a very common Arabic pattern: subject first, then predicate.

In careful spelling, it is written with الـ, but because ز is a sun letter, the l sound of الـ assimilates.

So it is pronounced:

• az-zāʾir

not:

• al-zāʾir

A couple of pronunciation points:

• ز is doubled in pronunciation because of the assimilation.
• The ء in زائر is a hamza, a glottal stop, so there is a little break: zā-ʾir.

So the whole word is roughly az-zāʾir.

With full case endings, it would usually be:

• الزائرُ جاهزٌ

Both words are in the nominative here.

Why?

• الزائرُ is the subject of the nominal sentence.
• جاهزٌ is the predicate.

In normal Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually omitted, so you most often see:

• الزائر جاهز

That is completely standard.

There actually would be tanwīn in fully vocalized text:

• جاهزٌ

But in normal everyday writing, short vowels and tanwīn are usually not written.

So:

• fully vocalized: جاهزٌ
• normal writing: جاهز

This is one reason beginners sometimes have trouble seeing whether a word is definite or indefinite. In this case, the fact that جاهز does not have الـ tells you it is indefinite.

Yes. When used like this, it agrees with the noun in gender and number.

Examples:

• الزائر جاهز = masculine singular
• الزائرة جاهزة = feminine singular
• الزائران جاهزان = masculine dual
• الزائرون جاهزون = masculine plural

So if the subject changes, the predicate form usually changes too.

Yes. زائر is originally an active participle from the verb زار (to visit).

Active participles in Arabic often work like:

• an adjective
• a noun
• or something in between

So زائر can mean:

• visitor as a noun
• sometimes something closer to visiting depending on context

In this sentence, though, it is most naturally understood as the noun visitor.

This is a very important beginner point.

• الزائر جاهز = The visitor is ready
  This is a sentence.

• الزائر الجاهز = the ready visitor
  This is a noun phrase.

So the presence or absence of الـ on the second word changes the structure completely.

A good shortcut:

• definite noun + indefinite adjective/predicate → often a sentence
• definite noun + definite adjective → usually a noun phrase

For a beginner, the normal and safest order is:

• الزائر جاهز

That is the standard neutral word order: subject + predicate.

A different order can sometimes appear in special styles or for emphasis, but it is not the basic pattern you should learn first.

So if you want to say The visitor is ready, use:

• الزائر جاهز