الحكومة مهمة.

Because Arabic often uses a nominal sentence in the present tense, with no separate word for is / are.

So:

• الحكومة = the government
• مهمة = important

Together, الحكومة مهمة means The government is important.

In the present tense, Arabic usually leaves out is.
If you wanted past or future, then Arabic would use other words:

• كانت الحكومة مهمة = The government was important
• ستكون الحكومة مهمة = The government will be important

In Arabic, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• الحكومة المهمة = the important government

This is the normal Arabic order:

• noun first
• adjective second

That is different from English, where we usually put the adjective first:

• important government

In الحكومة مهمة, the second word is not part of a noun phrase like the important government. Instead, it is the predicate of the sentence: The government is important.

Because الحكومة is a feminine noun, and Arabic adjectives must agree with the noun they describe.

So if the noun is feminine, the adjective must also be feminine.

• مهم = important, masculine
• مهمة = important, feminine

Since الحكومة is feminine, Arabic uses:

• الحكومة مهمة

not:

• الحكومة مهم

One strong clue is the ending ة at the end of the word:

• حكومة

This ending, called taa marbuuTa, very often marks feminine nouns.

So حكومة is grammatically feminine, and that is why the adjective must also be feminine:

• حكومة مهمة

Keep in mind that grammatical gender in Arabic is a normal part of the language. It does not necessarily mean the thing itself is biologically female.

Because in this sentence, مهمة is the predicate, not an adjective inside a definite noun phrase.

Compare these:

• الحكومة مهمة = The government is important
• الحكومة المهمة = the important government

In الحكومة المهمة, both words are definite, because the adjective is directly describing the noun inside one noun phrase.

In الحكومة مهمة, the second word is saying something about the government, so it stays indefinite.

This is a very important pattern in Arabic nominal sentences.

Yes, the ل is pronounced here.

الحكومة is pronounced roughly al-ḥukūmah.

The reason is that ح is a moon letter, not a sun letter. With moon letters, the ل in ال is pronounced clearly.

So you say:

• al-ḥu-kuu-mah

not a doubled ḥ sound.

It is pronounced roughly muhimmah.

A helpful breakdown:

• mu
• him
• mah

The مّ has a shadda, which means that m sound is doubled or held slightly longer.

So it is not muhimah, but muhimmah.

The ة is called taa marbuuTa.

In pause, at the end of a sentence, it is usually pronounced like -a or -ah:

• حكومة → ḥukūmah
• مهمة → muhimmah

If the word is followed by a grammatical ending in full formal pronunciation, the ة can sound like t.

For a beginner, the most useful thing to remember is:

• at the end of a sentence, it usually sounds like -ah

The shadda on مّ means the consonant is doubled.

So:

• مهمة = muhimmah

You should hold the m a little longer than a single m.

This matters because shadda is a real spelling feature in Arabic, not just decoration. It changes pronunciation and can sometimes distinguish words.

Yes. مهمة can also be a noun meaning mission or task.

For example:

• هذه مهمة صعبة = This is a difficult task

But in الحكومة مهمة, it is understood as the adjective important, because of the sentence structure and context.

So here it means:

• important, not mission

In full formal Arabic, yes, there can be case endings:

• الحكومةُ مهمةٌ

This would be the fully vowelled form.

• الحكومةُ has -u because it is the subject of the nominal sentence
• مهمةٌ has -un because it is an indefinite predicate

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

• الحكومة مهمة

That is completely normal in everyday printed Arabic.

That would usually mean something different.

• الحكومة مهمة = The government is important
• مهمة الحكومة = the government’s mission/task

So reversing them does not usually give the same sentence with a different word order. It changes the structure and meaning.

That is because مهمة الحكومة is understood as an iDaafa-type phrase: the mission of the government.

This is a nominal sentence in Arabic.

Its two main parts are:

• المبتدأ = the topic / subject
  → الحكومة
• الخبر = the comment / predicate
  → مهمة

So the structure is:

• الحكومة = what we are talking about
• مهمة = what we say about it

That is one of the most basic and common sentence patterns in Arabic.