الشوارب على وجه القطة.

Because Arabic often begins a nominal sentence with the thing being talked about. Here, الشوارب means the whiskers, and the rest of the sentence tells you where they are: على وجه القطة = on the cat’s face.

So the structure is roughly:

• الشوارب = the topic
• على وجه القطة = where they are

This is very natural in Arabic.

Yes. In Arabic, a sentence in the present tense often has no word for is/are. So:

• الشوارب على وجه القطة literally: the whiskers on the face of the cat but naturally means:
• The whiskers are on the cat’s face

Arabic does this all the time in present-time descriptions.

الشوارب is the plural, meaning whiskers.

Its singular is شارب.

A useful note: for people, شارب often means mustache. For animals, especially in context, the plural شوارب can mean whiskers.

So in this sentence, because we are talking about a cat, الشوارب is naturally understood as whiskers.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• شوارب = whiskers
• الشوارب = the whiskers

In this sentence, we are talking about specific whiskers: the cat’s whiskers.

على usually means on.

So:

• على وجه القطة = on the cat’s face

That is the natural preposition here because whiskers are located on the face. English and Arabic match nicely in this sentence.

This is an iḍāfa construction, often called a possessive construction.

وجه القطة means:

• face of the cat
• or more naturally, the cat’s face

In an iḍāfa:

1. The first noun does not take الـ
2. The first noun does not take tanwīn
3. The second noun determines the whole phrase

So:

• وجه = face
• القطة = the cat
• وجه القطة = the cat’s face

Even though وجه does not have الـ, the whole phrase is definite because القطة is definite.

قطة is a feminine noun, and the ـة at the end is a strong clue.

It usually means female cat, though in many beginner contexts it may simply be used for cat in general.

Compare:

• قط = male cat / cat
• قطة = female cat

So القطة means the female cat or sometimes just the cat, depending on context.

A careful pronunciation is roughly:

• ash-shawārib ʿalā wajhi al-qiṭṭa

A few notes:

• ال before ش becomes assimilated, so الشوارب is pronounced ash-shawārib, not al-shawārib
• على is ʿalā, with the letter ع
• وجه is wajh
• القطة is al-qiṭṭa, with a doubled ṭṭ

If you are reading with full case endings, it could be:

• ash-shawāribu ʿalā wajhi al-qiṭṭati

But in normal pause at the end of the sentence, those final short vowels are often not pronounced.

Because ش is a sun letter.

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

So:

• ال + شوارب becomes pronounced
• ash-shawārib

You still write ال, but you pronounce it with assimilation.

After a preposition like على, the noun is in the genitive case.

So in full vowelled form:

• على وجهِ القطةِ

Both وجه and القطة are genitive here:

• وجهِ is genitive because it comes after على
• القطةِ is genitive because it is the second part of the iḍāfa

In unvowelled everyday writing, you usually just see:

• على وجه القطة

Yes, but the given order is very natural.

• الشوارب على وجه القطة = The whiskers are on the cat’s face.

Arabic is somewhat flexible with word order, but this version clearly introduces the topic first, then gives its location.

If you changed the order, the emphasis might change, but for a beginner this sentence is a good standard model:

• [noun/topic] + [prepositional phrase]

In this sentence, وجه clearly means face.

More generally, وجه can also mean side, surface, or aspect in other contexts. But when used with an animal or person, it very commonly means face.

So:

• وجه القطة = the cat’s face

is the most natural reading here.

You would make the nouns indefinite.

A possible version is:

• شوارب قطة على وجهها

But this changes the style and structure a little.

The original sentence:

• الشوارب على وجه القطة

is simpler and more textbook-like:

• The whiskers are on the cat’s face

For beginners, the original is easier because the definiteness is very clear.