الشرطي قوي.

A careful MSA pronunciation is ash-shurṭiyyu qawiyyun.

A more pause-based or less fully inflected pronunciation is often closer to ash-shurṭi qawi.

A few notes:

• الشرطي starts with ش, so الـ is pronounced with assimilation: ash-, not al-
• ط is an emphatic t
• ق is the deep q sound, not an English k
• قوي is pronounced roughly qawiyy, with a strong y sound at the end in full pronunciation

Because Arabic often omits the verb to be in the present tense.

So:

• الشرطي قوي = The policeman is strong

This is called a nominal sentence in Arabic: a sentence made from a subject and a predicate, without a present-tense is/are.

If you wanted the past tense, you would usually use a verb, for example:

• كان الشرطي قويًّا = The policeman was strong

الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• شرطي = a policeman / policeman
• الشرطي = the policeman

In this sentence, الشرطي is definite: it refers to the policeman.

Because ش is a sun letter.

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

So:

• Written: الشرطي
• Pronounced: ash-shurṭiyyu

The ش takes over the sound of the l.

Because here قوي is the predicate of the sentence, not an adjective directly attached to the noun.

Compare these two:

• الشرطي قوي = The policeman is strong
• الشرطي القوي = the strong policeman

This is a very important difference:

• In الشرطي قوي, قوي means strong as the description being asserted about the policeman.
• In الشرطي القوي, القوي is an attributive adjective modifying الشرطي directly.

So the absence of الـ helps show that the sentence means The policeman is strong, not the strong policeman.

Yes, but specifically it functions as the predicate of the sentence.

In English, we also use adjectives as predicates:

• The policeman is strong

Here, strong is an adjective, but it comes after is.

In Arabic, the same idea happens without a present-tense is:

• الشرطي قوي

So قوي is an adjective, but grammatically it is the predicate of the nominal sentence.

They mean different things:

• الشرطي قوي = The policeman is strong
• الشرطي القوي = the strong policeman

Why?

• In الشرطي قوي, the second word is the predicate, so the sentence makes a statement.
• In الشرطي القوي, both words are definite, so القوي is an adjective describing الشرطي inside a noun phrase.

This is one of the most important patterns in Arabic.

Yes. In fully vocalized, formal MSA, you would normally read:

• الشُّرْطِيُّ قَوِيٌّ

That is:

• الشرطيُّ = nominative subject
• قويٌّ = nominative predicate

In ordinary unvocalized writing, these endings are usually not written, so you just see:

• الشرطي قوي

Learners should know the endings exist, even though everyday texts usually leave them out.

Because Arabic distinguishes between:

1. an adjective directly attached to a noun
2. a predicate that tells you something about the noun

In الشرطي قوي, قوي is not attached as the strong policeman. It is the predicate: is strong.

So it stays indefinite in form.

This is normal in Arabic nominal sentences:

• البيت كبير = The house is big
• الولد ذكي = The boy is smart

The subject may be definite, while the predicate is often indefinite.

Yes, in the sense that it matches the subject in gender and number.

Here:

• الشرطي is masculine singular
• قوي is also masculine singular

That is why the sentence is correct.

If the subject were feminine, the predicate adjective would normally be feminine too. For example:

• الشرطية قوية = The policewoman is strong

So predicate adjectives in Arabic usually agree with the subject in gender and number.

It is a masculine singular noun meaning policeman or police officer.

More specifically, it is related to شرطة meaning police.

The feminine form is:

• شرطية = policewoman

So:

• الشرطي قوي = The policeman is strong
• الشرطية قوية = The policewoman is strong

Yes, but الشرطي قوي is the basic and most straightforward order.

This gives:

• subject: الشرطي
• predicate: قوي

Arabic can sometimes front the predicate for emphasis or style, but for learners, the normal pattern is best:

• الشرطي قوي

That is the clearest standard form for The policeman is strong.

No. As written, it means The policeman is strong.

If you want the strong policeman, you need:

• الشرطي القوي

That extra الـ on القوي is crucial.

So:

• الشرطي قوي = a complete sentence
• الشرطي القوي = a noun phrase

A common plural is:

• الشرطيون أقوياء = The policemen are strong

Or in less fully inflected writing, you may see forms without case endings.

The main thing to notice is that both the noun and the adjective change:

• الشرطي → الشرطيون
• قوي → أقوياء

So Arabic changes both parts to match number.