الطائرة في المطار.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the verb to be is usually not written or spoken in the present tense when you are saying something like X is Y or X is in Y.

So:

• الطائرة في المطار. = The airplane is in the airport.

This is called a nominal sentence. Arabic often just puts the topic first and then gives information about it.

If you wanted the past, then Arabic would use a verb:

• كانت الطائرة في المطار. = The airplane was in the airport.

The prefix ال means the.

So:

• الطائرة = the airplane
• المطار = the airport

English also uses the in both parts of the sentence, so this matches well.

Arabic uses ال attached directly to the noun, instead of writing a separate word like English does.

Because ط is a sun letter.

When ال comes before a sun letter, the l sound of ال is not pronounced. Instead, the following consonant is doubled.

So:

• Written: الطائرة
• Pronounced: aṭ-ṭāʾira

This is a normal pronunciation rule in Arabic spelling and reading. The spelling stays the same, but the pronunciation changes.

في usually means in, but in English the best translation can sometimes be at, depending on context.

So in this sentence:

• الطائرة في المطار could be understood as The airplane is in the airport or more naturally The airplane is at the airport.

Arabic uses في in many places where English may choose either in or at.

This is a very common Arabic pattern:

• الطائرة = the topic / subject of the sentence
• في المطار = the information about it

More traditionally:

• الطائرة = مبتدأ (the thing being talked about)
• في المطار = خبر (what is said about it)

So the structure is:

• noun + prepositional phrase

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

Yes. After a preposition like في, the following noun is in the genitive case.

So in fully vowelled Arabic, you would see:

• الطائرةُ في المطارِ

The ending -i on المطارِ shows that it comes after a preposition.

In normal everyday Arabic writing, these short vowel endings are usually not written, so learners often do not see them.

In a fully vowelled sentence, الطائرة here is in the nominative case because it is the opening noun of the nominal sentence.

So the full form is:

• الطائرةُ في المطارِ

That final -u on الطائرةُ is the nominative ending.

Again, in normal unvowelled writing, that ending is usually not shown.

Yes, طائرة is grammatically feminine.

You can see this partly from the ة at the end, which often marks feminine nouns.

So if you later describe it with an adjective or refer to it with a pronoun, Arabic will treat it as feminine:

• الطائرة كبيرة. = The airplane is big.
• هي في المطار. = It / she is in the airport.

This is grammatical gender, not biological gender.

Starting with الطائرة is the most straightforward way to say The airplane is in the airport.

Arabic can also put the prepositional phrase first:

• في المطار الطائرة is generally not the neutral standard way for this sentence.
• More naturally, Arabic might say في المطار طائرةٌ if introducing an airplane.

With a definite subject like الطائرة, the usual basic order is:

• الطائرة في المطار

That makes the airplane the main topic.

A careful pronunciation is:

• aṭ-ṭāʾiratu fī l-maṭāri

In pause, many final short vowels are not pronounced, so learners often hear something closer to:

• aṭ-ṭāʾira fī l-maṭār

A few notes:

• ط is an emphatic t
• ء in طائرة is a glottal stop
• في is a long fī
• مطار has a long ā

In Modern Standard Arabic, a common way is:

• الطائرة ليست في المطار.

Here ليست means is not for a feminine singular subject, matching الطائرة.

So:

• الطائرة في المطار. = The airplane is in the airport.
• الطائرة ليست في المطار. = The airplane is not in the airport.

Not always so simply.

If you remove ال, you get:

• طائرة = an airplane
• مطار = an airport

But Arabic usually does not like to begin a simple nominal sentence with an indefinite noun unless there is a special reason.

So instead of starting with طائرة, Arabic often says:

• في المطار طائرةٌ = There is an airplane in the airport / At the airport, there is an airplane

So yes, removing ال makes a noun indefinite, but the whole sentence structure may also change.

The plural forms are:

• طائرة → طائرات = airplanes
• مطار → مطارات = airports

So:

• الطائرات في المطارات. = The airplanes are in the airports.

This is useful because both words in your sentence have common regular-looking plurals.