الشباب يعملون اليوم.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• شباب = young people / youth
• الشباب = the young people / the youth

In this sentence, the noun is definite, so Arabic uses الـ.

الشباب usually means young people, youth, or the youth. In meaning, it is treated as plural here.

That is why the verb is also plural:

• الشباب
• يعملون = they work / are working

Even though English sometimes uses youth as a collective singular noun, in this sentence Arabic is treating الشباب as a plural group.

In Arabic, the present tense usually does not need a separate word like am / is / are before another verb.

English says:

• The young people are working today

Arabic simply says:

• الشباب يعملون اليوم

The verb يعملون already carries the meaning work / are working, depending on context.

يعملون means they work or they are working.

It comes from the verb عَمِلَ / يَعْمَلُ = to work.

The form يعملون is the 3rd person masculine plural in the present/imperfect tense, meaning:

• they work
• they are working

A useful breakdown is:

• يـ = a present-tense marker
• عمل = the root idea of working
• ـون = masculine plural ending

So يعملون literally corresponds to they work.

Yes, Arabic can do both, depending on word order.

In your sentence:

• الشباب يعملون اليوم

the subject الشباب comes before the verb, so the verb usually shows full agreement:

• plural subject
• plural verb

So we get يعملون.

But if the verb comes first, Arabic often uses a singular verb with a plural subject:

• يعملُ الشبابُ اليومَ

This also means The young people are working today.

So:

• الشباب يعملون اليوم = subject first → plural verb
• يعمل الشباب اليوم = verb first → often singular verb

This is a very important pattern in Modern Standard Arabic.

Because it starts with الشباب (a noun), it is usually analyzed as a nominal sentence in Arabic grammar.

Structure:

• الشباب = the topic/subject
• يعملون اليوم = the predicate/comment about the subject

Even though there is a verb inside it, the sentence begins with a noun, so traditional Arabic grammar classifies it as a nominal sentence.

If you said:

• يعمل الشباب اليوم

that would be a verbal sentence, because it begins with a verb.

Yes. اليوم means today, and Arabic allows some flexibility with word order.

Your sentence:

• الشباب يعملون اليوم

You may also see:

• اليوم يعمل الشباب
• يعمل الشباب اليوم
• الشباب اليوم يعملون

These can all be possible depending on style and emphasis.

The most neutral translation is still something like The young people are working today, but changing the order can highlight different parts of the sentence.

In full formal vocalization, you would commonly see:

• الشَّبَابُ يَعْمَلُونَ الْيَوْمَ

The endings are:

• الشبابُ with ـُ because it is the subject/topic
• يعملونَ with ـَ on the final ن in full parsing
• اليومَ with ـَ because it functions adverbially as a time expression

In normal everyday writing, these short vowel endings are usually omitted, so you normally just see:

• الشباب يعملون اليوم

A common pronunciation is approximately:

• yaʿmalūna

The difficult sound here is ع. It is a deep throat sound that does not exist in English.

A rough breakdown:

• ya = like ya
• ʿma = the ع comes before ma
• lūn = long oo sound
• final a if fully pronounced in careful reading

So the word is not yamaloon or yamalun. The ع should be pronounced, even if only lightly at first.

It can mean either one.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the present/imperfect tense often covers both:

• they work
• they are working

The exact meaning depends on context.

So:

• الشباب يعملون اليوم

can mean:

• The young people work today
• The young people are working today

In many contexts, English prefers are working today, but Arabic uses the same verb form.

You usually do not need to, because the verb already shows the subject.

• يعملون already means they work / they are working

So:

• الشباب يعملون اليوم is natural

You could add هم in some contexts for emphasis, but it would usually be unnecessary here.

Arabic often leaves subject pronouns unstated when the verb already makes the subject clear.

This sentence is perfectly good Modern Standard Arabic.

In everyday spoken dialects, people often use different forms of the verb and sometimes slightly different pronunciation or vocabulary. For example, many dialects would not use the exact MSA form يعملون in casual speech.

So this sentence is excellent for learning standard grammar, reading, and formal Arabic, even if colloquial Arabic might phrase it differently.