أستعد لمقابلة العمل كي لا أتأخر.

أستعد is the 1st person singular imperfect form of استعدّ, which means to prepare or to get ready.

So أستعد can mean:

• I prepare
• I am preparing
• I get ready

In this sentence, the most natural sense is I am preparing / I’m getting ready.

Because Arabic verbs already include the subject.

In أستعد, the prefix أ tells you the subject is I. So Arabic does not need أنا unless the speaker wants emphasis or contrast.

• أستعد = I prepare / I am preparing
• أنا أستعد = I am preparing with extra emphasis, like I am the one preparing

The verb استعدّ normally uses the preposition لِـ to mean prepare for.

So:

• أستعد لمقابلة العمل = I am preparing for the job interview

This is just the standard pattern of the verb:

• استعدّ لامتحان = prepare for an exam
• استعدّ للسفر = prepare for travel

Here, مقابلة is a noun, not a verb. It means interview or meeting, depending on context.

In this sentence, it means interview.

It comes from the verb قابل meaning to meet, but here it is being used as a verbal noun / noun.

The ة at the end does not mean the interview itself is feminine in any real-world sense. It is just part of the noun’s form.

Yes. مقابلة العمل is an iḍāfa construction, often called a construct phrase.

It works like this:

• مقابلة = interview
• العمل = the work / the job

Together, مقابلة العمل means something like the interview of the job, which in natural English becomes the job interview.

This is a very common Arabic structure. Instead of using an adjective the way English often does, Arabic often puts two nouns together.

Because it is the first noun in an iḍāfa.

In an iḍāfa:

• the first noun does not take الـ
• the first noun does not take tanwīn
• the second noun determines whether the whole phrase is definite

So:

• مقابلة العمل is correct
• not المقابلة العمل
• not مقابلةٌ العمل

Since العمل is definite, the whole phrase is definite in meaning.

كي means so that or in order to.

It introduces a purpose clause. It explains why the speaker is preparing.

So:

• أستعد لمقابلة العمل كي لا أتأخر
  = I am preparing for the job interview so that I won’t be late

The first part tells you the action.
The كي part tells you the purpose.

Because the speaker wants to express a negative purpose:

• كي أتأخر would mean so that I am late, which makes no sense here
• كي لا أتأخر means so that I am not late or in order not to be late

This لا is simple negation: not.

It is not a command. It is not the same as the لا used in prohibitions such as لا تذهب = don’t go.

Yes. After كي, the imperfect verb is normally subjunctive.

So with full vowel endings, it would be:

• كي لا أتأخرَ

The final vowel would be fatḥa, not ḍamma.

But in ordinary Arabic writing, short vowels at the end are usually not written, so أتأخر looks the same on the page whether it is indicative or subjunctive.

So the grammar changes, but the unvoweled spelling usually does not show it.

أتأخر comes from تأخّر, which means to be late, to come late, or to be delayed.

In this sentence, the most natural English meaning is:

• be late
• or arrive late

So كي لا أتأخر means so that I won’t be late.

Depending on context, تأخر can also mean being delayed in a more general sense, but here be late is clearly the intended meaning.

Yes. A few common alternatives are:

• لكي لا أتأخر
• حتى لا أتأخر
• من أجل ألّا أتأخر

They all express purpose, and all can mean so that I won’t be late / in order not to be late.

Very roughly:

• كي = concise and standard
• لكي = a bit more explicit
• حتى لا = also very common
• من أجل ألّا = more formal or more emphatic

A fully vocalized version is:

أَسْتَعِدُّ لِمُقَابَلَةِ الْعَمَلِ كَيْ لَا أَتَأَخَّرَ

A careful transliteration would be:

astaʿiddu li-muqābalati l-ʿamali kay lā ataʾakhkhara

A few useful notes:

• أستعدُّ ends with ـُ because it is the imperfect in its normal indicative form.
• مقابلةِ is genitive because it comes after لِـ.
• العملِ is also genitive because it is the second noun in the iḍāfa.
• أتأخرَ ends with ـَ because it is subjunctive after كي.
• In العمل, the ل of الـ is pronounced, because ع is a moon letter, not a sun letter.