يساوم المشتري البائع.

In a fully vocalized version, the sentence is:

يُساوِمُ المُشْتَرِي البائِعَ

The basic pattern here is verb + subject + object.

• المشتري is the subject: the one doing the bargaining.
• البائعَ is the direct object: the person being bargained with.

In fully marked Arabic, the object often shows fatḥa at the end, as in البائعَ. In everyday writing, short vowels are usually omitted, so learners often rely on word order and context.

Because verb-subject-object order is very common in Modern Standard Arabic.

So:

• يساوم المشتري البائع = verb first
• المشتري يساوم البائع = subject first

Both are possible. The version with the verb first is very normal and slightly more neutral in formal Arabic prose.

يساوم is in the imperfect form, which can express:

• the present: he is bargaining
• the future: he will bargain

The exact time usually comes from context. On its own, it is often understood as present.

يساوم is the imperfect of ساوَمَ.

This is a Form III verb. A common feature of Form III verbs is that they often involve interaction with another person.

That fits well here, because bargaining is naturally something done with someone else.

So this verb form helps convey the idea of a back-and-forth interaction.

Because in Arabic, ساوم can take the other person directly as an object.

In English, you often say bargain with the seller.
In Arabic, you can simply say:

ساومَ البائعَ
literally, something like he bargained the seller

That is just how this verb works grammatically in Arabic.

If you want to add what is being bargained over, Arabic can add another phrase, for example:

يساوم المشتري البائعَ على السعر
The buyer bargains with the seller over the price.

Because both nouns are definite:

• المشتري = the buyer
• البائع = the seller

This usually means the sentence is talking about specific people already known from the context, not just any buyer and any seller.

If they were indefinite, the sentence would mean something more like a buyer and a seller.

A careful pronunciation is:

yusāwimu al-mushtarī al-bāʾiʿa

Word by word:

• يُساوِمُ = yu-sā-wi-mu
• المشتري = al-mush-ta-rī
• البائعَ = al-bā-ʾi-ʿa

A few pronunciation notes:

• The hamza in بائع is the little catch in the throat: bāʾi...
• The final sound ع is ʿayn, a deep Arabic consonant.
• In normal pausal reading, final short case vowels are often not pronounced, so you may hear something closer to al-bāʾiʿ at the end.

Because م in المشتري and ب in البائع are moon letters, not sun letters.

That means the ل in الـ is pronounced normally:

• al-mushtarī
• al-bāʾiʿ

If these words started with a sun letter, the ل would assimilate instead.

They are ordinary nouns in use, but they are also historically active participles.

• المشتري comes from اشترى = to buy
  So مشتري means buyer / one who buys

• البائع comes from باع = to sell
  So بائع means seller / one who sells

Arabic uses active participles very often as everyday nouns for people who do an action.

Yes. That is also correct.

Compare:

• يساوم المشتري البائع = more typical verb-first structure
• المشتري يساوم البائع = subject-first, which can sound a bit more explicit or topic-focused

Both mean the same basic thing. The difference is mostly one of style, emphasis, and sentence flow.

Because most normal Arabic writing leaves out short vowels and most case endings.

So learners often see:

يساوم المشتري البائع

instead of the fully marked version:

يُساوِمُ المُشْتَرِي البائِعَ

This is completely normal. Textbooks often add vowels when teaching grammar or pronunciation, but newspapers, books, and most everyday written Arabic usually do not.

Yes, it is natural and grammatical.

It sounds like something you might read in a textbook, article, or formal description of buying and selling. It is especially appropriate if the context is negotiating a price or haggling.

If you wanted to make the idea even more specific, Arabic often adds what the bargaining is about, for example:

يساوم المشتري البائعَ على الثمن
The buyer bargains with the seller over the price.