يتكلم الملك.

Because Arabic often uses verb–subject order, especially in simple narrative sentences.

So يتكلم الملك is a very normal MSA structure:

• يتكلم = speaks / is speaking
• الملك = the king

This is called a verbal sentence.

Arabic can also say الملك يتكلم, but that has a slightly different feel:

• يتكلم الملك = a neutral The king speaks / is speaking
• الملك يتكلم = more like The king is speaking, with a little more focus on the king

يتكلم is in the imperfect form.

In English, that can correspond to several meanings depending on context:

• he speaks
• he is speaking
• sometimes even he will speak

In this short sentence, the most natural basic meanings are:

• The king speaks
• The king is speaking

Arabic does not divide tense in exactly the same way English does, so context is important.

The يـ is part of the imperfect verb pattern and here it marks third person masculine singular.

So يتكلم means:

• he speaks
• he is speaking

That matches الملك, because king is masculine singular.

Because the verb tells you a he is speaking, but not which he.

So:

• يتكلم by itself = he speaks / he is speaking
• يتكلم الملك = the king speaks / is speaking

Arabic verbs often already contain subject information, but speakers still add the noun when they want to identify the subject clearly.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• الملك = the king
• ملك = a king or just king, depending on context

In careful fully vocalized Arabic, a king would usually be written مَلِكٌ with nunation, but in normal unvocalized writing you often just see the consonantal form.

It is pronounced al-malik.

A few useful points:

• الـ is pronounced al- here because م is a moon letter, so the l sound stays.
• ملك in this sentence is malik, meaning king.

So the full sentence is pronounced approximately:

yatakallamu al-maliku

In pause, many speakers shorten the endings, so you may also hear something closer to:

yatakallam al-malik

Arabic is normally written without short vowels in everyday texts.

So you see:

• يتكلم الملك

But the fully vocalized form is:

• يَتَكَلَّمُ الْمَلِكُ

Those vowel marks help show pronunciation and grammar, but they are usually omitted in normal writing because native readers can supply them from context.

Because الملك is the subject of the sentence, and in Standard Arabic the subject is normally in the nominative case.

So in full vocalization:

• الْمَلِكُ = the king as subject

That final -u is a case ending.

In everyday reading and in pause, these endings are often not pronounced clearly, especially outside very formal recitation or careful speech.

Yes, absolutely.

Both are grammatical:

• يتكلم الملك
• الملك يتكلم

The difference is mostly about style and emphasis:

• يتكلم الملك = more classically verbal, often the more neutral written MSA pattern
• الملك يتكلم = starts with the subject, so it can sound a bit more like As for the king, he is speaking

For a beginner, it is good to recognize both.

Yes. It comes from the root ك ل م, which is connected with speech and words.

Related words include:

• كلام = speech, talk
• كلمة = word
• تكلّم = to speak
• يتكلم = he speaks / is speaking

So seeing the root can help you build vocabulary connections.

It is not the simplest root form; it is from the verb تكلّم, which is a derived form.

For beginners, the important point is just:

• dictionary form: تكلّم
• present/imperfect: يتكلم

This verb commonly means:

• to speak
• to talk

You do not need to master all the verb-form theory right away, but it is useful to know that Arabic often builds related meanings through regular verb patterns.