ترتيب اللعب مهم.

A careful MSA reading is roughly tar-TEEB al-LAʿB mu-HIMM.

A few pronunciation notes:

• تَرْتِيب has a long ee sound: -teeb
• اللعب contains ع, a sound that does not exist in English
• مهم is pronounced mu-himm, with a doubled m sound because of the shadda

If full case endings are read, the sentence would be pronounced with final vowels, but in normal pause those are often not fully heard.

Because Arabic often leaves out the present-tense verb to be.

So ترتيب اللعب مهم literally looks like:

order of play important

But in natural English, that becomes:

The order of play is important.

This is a very normal Arabic pattern, especially in nominal sentences.

ترتيب means order, arrangement, or sequence.

In this sentence, it means the order in which the play happens, or the order in which players act or take turns.

It is a noun, not a verb.

Yes. It is an iḍāfa construction, often translated as X of Y.

So:

• ترتيب اللعب = the order of play

In Arabic, there is no separate word for of here. The relationship is shown just by putting the two nouns together.

This is a very common question. In an iḍāfa, the first noun usually does not take الـ.

So Arabic says:

• ترتيب اللعب

not:

• الترتيب اللعب

Even though the whole phrase is definite in meaning, the first noun stays without الـ because that is how the construction works.

Because the second noun in the iḍāfa is what makes the whole phrase definite.

So:

• اللعب = the play / the playing / play in general
• ترتيب اللعب = the order of play

Since اللعب is definite, the whole phrase becomes definite.

Because مهم is the predicate: it tells you something about ترتيب اللعب.

So:

• ترتيب اللعب مهم = The order of play is important

If you said المهم, it would usually change the structure and meaning. Arabic commonly leaves predicate adjectives indefinite in sentences like this.

• ترتيب: noun, meaning order/arrangement
• اللعب: noun, meaning play/playing/gameplay
• مهم: adjective, meaning important

In this sentence, مهم works as the predicate of the sentence, so it tells us something about ترتيب اللعب.

If fully vowelled, the grammar is:

• ترتيبُ: nominative, because it is the subject of the nominal sentence
• اللعبِ: genitive, because it is the second noun in the iḍāfa
• مهمٌّ: nominative, because it is the predicate

In ordinary Arabic writing, these endings are usually not written, so you normally just see:

ترتيب اللعب مهم

Not exactly.

• اللعب usually means play, playing, or gameplay in a general or abstract sense
• اللعبة usually means a game or a toy, depending on context

So in this sentence, اللعب is better because the meaning is about the activity or process of play, not one specific game object.

The normal, straightforward order is:

ترتيب اللعب مهم

This is the clearest standard version for learners: subject phrase + predicate.

Arabic can sometimes change word order for emphasis or style, but this sentence is already the natural basic pattern.

Because it has a shadda on the second م: مهمّ.

A shadda means the consonant is doubled or held a little longer. So it is:

• mu-himm

not:

• mu-him

This matters, because shadda is a real part of pronunciation in Arabic, not just a spelling detail.