يفوته القطار اليوم.

Word-for-word, it is closer to the train escapes him.

With the verb فات / يفوت, Arabic often makes the thing that is missed the grammatical subject, while the person who misses it appears as an attached pronoun or another complement.

So:

• يفوته القطار = literally the train escapes him
• natural English meaning = he misses the train

This is a normal and idiomatic Arabic pattern.

It has two parts:

• يفوت = the imperfect verb he/it misses, passes, escapes
• ـه = him

So يفوته means it escapes him or he misses it, depending on how you translate it naturally in English.

Then القطار tells you what that it is: the train.

The dictionary form is فاتَ.

Its basic meanings include:

• to miss
• to pass
• to elapse
• to escape someone

The imperfect form is يفوت.

So the pair is:

• فاتَ = he missed
• يفوت = he misses / he will miss

Because verb + subject word order is very common in Arabic.

So يفوته القطار اليوم is a normal neutral sentence order:

• verb: يفوته
• subject: القطار
• time expression: اليوم

You can also move things around for emphasis, for example:

• القطار يفوته اليوم
• اليوم يفوته القطار

But the original order is very natural.

The Arabic imperfect can refer to present or future, depending on context.

So يفوته القطار اليوم can mean something like:

• he misses the train today
• he will miss the train today

The context decides which is more natural.

If you want to make the future clearer, you can add سـ or سوف:

• سيفوته القطار اليوم
• سوف يفوته القطار اليوم

With full case endings, it is:

يَفُوتُهُ القِطارُ اليَومَ

A careful pronunciation would be:

yafūtuhu al-qiṭāru al-yawma

A few notes:

• يَفُوتُهُ = yafūtuhu
• القِطارُ = al-qiṭāru
• اليَومَ = al-yawma

In normal Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually not written.

اليوم here is a time expression meaning today.

In fully vowelled Arabic, it is usually اليومَ with fatḥa, because it functions adverbially as a time expression.

Putting it at the end is very natural, but Arabic is flexible. You could also say:

• اليوم يفوته القطار
• يفوته اليوم القطار

The original version is simply a common, neutral ordering.

القطار means the train, not a train.

Arabic often uses the definite article when the train is understood from context, such as:

• the expected train
• the relevant train for the situation
• the train someone is trying to catch

If you wanted a train, you would use قطار (and in fully vowelled Arabic, قطارٌ if it is the subject).

You mainly change the attached pronoun:

• يفوتني القطار اليوم = I miss the train today
• يفوتك القطار اليوم = you miss the train today
• يفوته القطار اليوم = he misses the train today
• يفوتها القطار اليوم = she misses the train today
• يفوتنا القطار اليوم = we miss the train today
• يفوتهم القطار اليوم = they miss the train today

Notice that يفوت itself stays singular here because القطار is still the singular subject.

Yes. Using فات / يفوت is a very common and idiomatic way to express missing things like:

• trains
• buses
• appointments
• chances
• opportunities

So يفوته القطار is a very natural MSA way to say that someone misses the train.