يمزح صديقي اليوم.

A careful MSA pronunciation is yamzaḥu ṣadīqī al-yawma.

A pause pronunciation, which is very common in real speech, is closer to yamzaḥ ṣadīqī al-yawm.

A few sound notes:

• ص in صديقي is an emphatic s
• ح in يمزح is a strong breathy ḥ, not the English h
• ي in صديقي is a long ee sound

يمزح is a present/imperfect verb. It is:

• 3rd person
• masculine
• singular

So by itself it means he jokes, he is joking, or sometimes he jokes around, depending on context.

It comes from the root م-ز-ح, connected with joking or kidding.

Because the verb already includes that information.

In يمزح, the يـ at the beginning tells you the subject is he in the present/imperfect form. Arabic often does this, so you do not need a separate pronoun unless you want extra emphasis.

So:

• يمزح = he jokes / he is joking
• adding هو would usually be unnecessary here

This is a very normal Arabic word order: verb + subject + time/place/etc.

So:

• يمزح صديقي اليوم = verb first
• literally: is joking my friend today

This word order is common in MSA. You can also say:

صديقي يمزح اليوم

That is also correct, but it feels more like you are putting focus on my friend as the topic.

صديقي means my friend.

It is made of:

• صديق = friend
• ـي = my

So literally it is friend-my, which is how Arabic commonly shows possession.

Because Arabic usually expresses possession with a suffix attached to the noun.

So instead of a separate word like English my, Arabic adds ـي to the noun:

• صديق = friend
• صديقي = my friend

This is very common:

• كتابي = my book
• بيتي = my house

Because Arabic commonly uses اليوم literally as the day, but in context it means today.

So اليوم is the normal MSA word for today. Even though it contains الـ, you should learn it as a whole expression.

It can mean either, depending on context.

The Arabic present/imperfect often covers both:

• is joking
• jokes

In a sentence with اليوم, many learners will naturally understand it as is joking today, but context always decides the most natural English translation.

In fully vocalized MSA, you could write it as:

يَمْزَحُ صَدِيقِي الْيَوْمَ

A few grammar points:

• يمزحُ ends with ـُ in the full form
• صديقي is the subject, so it is nominative in function
• اليومَ is often treated as an adverb of time, so it can take the accusative

However, in normal modern writing, these short final vowels are usually not written, and in pause they are often not pronounced either.

Because صديق is masculine and refers to a male friend.

So the verb is يمزح = he is joking.

If you wanted my female friend is joking today, you would say:

تمزح صديقتي اليوم

Here:

• تمزح = she is joking
• صديقتي = my female friend

Yes. A very common alternative is:

صديقي يمزح اليوم

Both are correct:

• يمزح صديقي اليوم = more verb-first, very standard in MSA
• صديقي يمزح اليوم = starts with my friend, so it sounds a bit more topic-focused

The basic meaning stays the same.