يبدأ صديقي لعبة البطاقات من دون أن يقرأ قواعد اللعبة.

يبدأ is the imperfect (non-past) form of the verb بدأ, meaning to begin or to start.

Here it is:

• 3rd person
• masculine
• singular

So يبدأ means he begins / he starts.

Because the subject is صديقي = my friend, the verb is in the he form.

Because verb-first word order is very common in Arabic, especially in Modern Standard Arabic.

So:

• يبدأ صديقي... = very natural MSA word order
• صديقي يبدأ... = also correct

The first version is more naturally verbal in style, while the second can put a little more focus on my friend.

So the sentence begins with the verb simply because Arabic often prefers verb + subject + object.

صديقي means my friend.

It is made of:

• صديق = friend
• ـي = my

So:

• صديق = friend
• صديقي = my friend

In this sentence, صديقي is the subject of يبدأ.

It is nominative, because it is the subject of the verb.

In full grammatical terms, it is the فاعل of يبدأ.

A learner may expect a visible nominative ending, but here the word ends with the possessive ـي (my), so the case ending is not clearly visible in normal unvocalized writing.

لعبة البطاقات is an iḍāfa construction, often called a genitive construct.

It literally means something like:

• the game of cards

Natural English:

• the card game
• a card game, depending on context

Breakdown:

• لعبة = game
• البطاقات = the cards / cards

In an iḍāfa:

• the first noun is the thing possessed or described
• the second noun explains what it is connected to

So لعبة البطاقات = card game.

In this sentence, the whole phrase is the direct object of يبدأ.

Because in an iḍāfa construction, the first noun normally does not take ال.

So Arabic says:

• لعبة البطاقات

not:

• اللعبة البطاقات

That is a key rule of iḍāfa.

Also, because the second noun البطاقات is definite, the whole phrase becomes definite in meaning.

من دون أن means without doing something, or more literally without that...

In this sentence:

• من دون أن يقرأ = without reading

This is a very common Arabic pattern:

• من دون أن + imperfect verb

Examples:

• خرج من دون أن يتكلم = He left without speaking
• بدأ من دون أن يفكر = He started without thinking

So here it introduces an action that did not happen before or during the main action.

Because after expressions like من دون in this structure, Arabic commonly uses:

• أن + imperfect verb

This creates a clause equivalent to English to read / reading depending on translation.

So:

• أن يقرأ = that he read / to read / reading, depending on context and translation style

In this sentence, من دون أن يقرأ is the Arabic way to say without reading.

Also, أن puts the imperfect verb into the subjunctive.

Yes, grammatically it does.

After أن, the imperfect verb is in the subjunctive (منصوب).

So in full vocalization:

• indicative: يقرأُ
• subjunctive after أن: يقرأَ

But in normal everyday writing, short vowels are usually not written, so both appear simply as:

• يقرأ

So the change is real grammatically, even if you usually do not see it in unvocalized text.

قواعد means rules.

Its singular is:

• قاعدة = rule

So:

• قاعدة = one rule
• قواعد = rules

This is a broken plural, which is very common in Arabic.

In the sentence, قواعد is the object of يقرأ:

• يقرأ قواعد اللعبة = he reads the rules of the game

Because Arabic wants to specify which rules:

• not just rules in general
• but the rules of the game

So:

• قواعد اللعبة = the game’s rules / the rules of the game

This is another iḍāfa construction:

• قواعد = rules
• اللعبة = the game

Together:

• قواعد اللعبة = the rules of the game

Arabic could use a pronoun if the context were already very clear, for example:

• قواعدها = its rules

But using the full noun:

• قواعد اللعبة

is clearer and more explicit, especially in formal written Arabic.

So repeating اللعبة is completely natural and often stylistically preferable in MSA.

A useful grammatical breakdown is:

• يبدأ = verb
• صديقي = subject
• لعبةَ البطاقاتِ = direct object
• من دون أن يقرأ قواعدَ اللعبةِ = prepositional phrase + subordinate clause explaining the circumstance

More specifically:

• صديقي = nominative subject
• لعبةَ = accusative as the first word of the object phrase
• البطاقاتِ = genitive because it is the second term of iḍāfa
• قواعدَ = accusative as the object of يقرأ
• اللعبةِ = genitive because it is the second term of iḍāfa

So the sentence contains two iḍāfa phrases:

• لعبة البطاقات
• قواعد اللعبة