الزواج مهم.

A common careful pronunciation is:

az-zawāju muhimm(un)

A few notes:

• الزواج begins with ال, but the ل is not pronounced here because ز is a sun letter. So الزواج sounds like az-zawāj, not al-zawāj.
• مهم is pronounced muhimm.
• In full formal reading, you may hear case endings:
  • الزواجُ مهمٌّ
  • az-zawāju muhimmun
• In normal pause at the end of the sentence, the final short vowel is often not pronounced, so you will often hear:
  • az-zawāju muhimm
  • or even more simply in less formal speech: az-zawāj muhimm

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

So Arabic says:

• الزواج مهم
• literally: marriage important

But in natural English, that means:

• Marriage is important

This is very normal in Arabic. The hidden is is understood automatically.

ال is the Arabic definite article, usually equivalent to the.

So زواج means marriage or a marriage in a general indefinite sense, while الزواج means the marriage or marriage as a known/general concept.

In sentences like this, Arabic often uses ال where English uses a general noun:

• الزواج مهم
• literally: the marriage is important
• natural English: Marriage is important

So even though English does not use the, Arabic often does.

Because مهم is the predicate adjective in this sentence, and in simple equational sentences like this, the predicate is usually indefinite.

So:

• الزواج = the topic / subject
• مهم = the description / predicate

This is the normal pattern:

• الولد طويل = The boy is tall
• البيت كبير = The house is big
• الزواج مهم = Marriage is important

If you said الزواج المهم, that would not mean marriage is important. It would mean something like the important marriage, which is a noun phrase, not a complete sentence.

مهم is an adjective meaning important.

In this sentence, it functions as the predicate of the sentence:

• الزواج = subject/topic
• مهم = predicate adjective

So the structure is basically:

• [noun] + [adjective]
• Marriage + important
• understood as Marriage is important

Yes, in fully vowelled formal Arabic, the sentence would usually be written:

الزواجُ مهمٌّ

Why?

• الزواجُ has ḍamma because it is the subject of a nominal sentence.
• مهمٌّ also has ḍamma because it is the predicate, and it is indefinite, so it takes tanwīn in full formal grammar.

But in most everyday writing, short vowels are omitted, so you usually just see:

الزواج مهم

Both are normal; the second is simply unvowelled writing.

Arabic nouns have grammatical gender, and زواج is masculine.

That is why the adjective appears in the masculine singular form:

• مهم = masculine singular
• not مهمة, which is feminine singular

So:

• الزواج مهم
• not الزواج مهمة

Even though marriage is not a person, Arabic still assigns grammatical gender to nouns.

Yes. Adjectives and predicate adjectives in Arabic agree with the noun in gender and number.

Since الزواج is:

• masculine
• singular

the adjective must also be:

• masculine
• singular

So مهم is the correct form.

If the noun were feminine, you would use مهمة instead.

Usually الزواج means marriage in the general sense: the institution, state, or idea of being married.

If you specifically mean the wedding event, Arabic often uses other expressions, such as:

• حفل الزفاف = wedding ceremony
• عرس = wedding

So in الزواج مهم, the meaning is usually Marriage is important, not The wedding is important.

In standard learning contexts, it is best to keep:

الزواج مهم

This is the most straightforward and neutral order.

Arabic can sometimes change word order for style or emphasis, but مهم الزواج would not usually be the normal way to express this basic idea. For a learner, the standard pattern is:

• definite noun first
• predicate second

So stick with:

• الزواج مهم

Yes. This is a nominal sentence in Arabic, meaning a sentence that begins with a noun rather than a verb.

Its two main parts are:

• المبتدأ: الزواج
• الخبر: مهم

So the structure is:

• Topic/subject
  • comment/predicate

This is one of the most common sentence patterns in Arabic.

Yes. A very common way is to add جدًا after the adjective:

• الزواج مهم جدًا
• Marriage is very important

This is a useful pattern to learn:

• كبير جدًا = very big
• صعب جدًا = very difficult
• مهم جدًا = very important

So جدًا usually comes after the adjective it modifies.