هذا سؤال بسيط.

In Arabic, the present tense of to be is usually not written or spoken in simple sentences like this one.

So هذا سؤال بسيط literally looks like this a simple question, but it naturally means This is a simple question.

This kind of sentence is called a nominal sentence in Arabic.

هذا means this for a masculine singular noun.

Here, it points to سؤال, which is a masculine singular noun meaning question.

It is pronounced roughly hādhā, where ذ sounds like the th in this.

That is a very common question.

هذا سؤال بسيط means This is a simple question.
Here, هذا is starting a whole sentence, and سؤال بسيط is the predicate: a simple question.

But هذا السؤال البسيط means this simple question as a noun phrase, not usually a full sentence by itself in the same way.

So the difference is:

هذا سؤال بسيط = This is a simple question
هذا السؤال البسيط = this simple question

Because in Arabic, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So:

سؤال بسيط = a simple question

not بسيط سؤال.

This is the normal word order for noun + adjective in Arabic.

Because they are indefinite here.

In English, the sentence means a simple question, not the simple question.
That is why Arabic uses:

سؤال بسيط = a simple question

If it were definite, it would be:

السؤال البسيط = the simple question

In Arabic, the adjective matches the noun in definiteness, so if the noun has الـ, the adjective does too.

Arabic adjectives agree with the noun they describe in several ways, including:

• gender
• number
• definiteness
• case

Here, سؤال is masculine singular and indefinite, so the adjective is also masculine singular and indefinite:

سؤال بسيط

If the noun were feminine, you would usually need a feminine adjective form instead.

Because سؤال is a masculine noun.

In Arabic:

• هذا = this for masculine singular
• هذه = this for feminine singular

So with سؤال, you say:

هذا سؤال بسيط

If the noun were feminine, you would use هذه instead.

سؤال is pronounced roughly suʔāl.

A few things matter here:

• سُ = su
• the ؤ carries a hamza, which is a brief stop sound
• ال here gives a long ā sound before the final l

So it sounds something like su-’aal, with a small break in the middle.

That hamza is important. It is not the same as a smooth suwal or sual with no stop.

With full case endings, it would be:

هٰذا سُؤالٌ بَسيطٌ

Both سؤالٌ and بسيطٌ take ـٌ because they are in the nominative here.

In normal modern writing, those short vowels are usually omitted, so you normally just see:

هذا سؤال بسيط

It is a nominal sentence made of two parts:

هذا = the topic or starting element
سؤال بسيط = the information about it

So structurally, it is:

هذا + سؤال بسيط
This + a simple question

You can think of it as:

This = subject-like element
a simple question = predicate

So the whole sentence means This is a simple question.