يحتاج المكتب إلى موافقة.

In Modern Standard Arabic, يحتاج normally takes the preposition إلى after it.

So:

• يحتاج إلى شيء = needs something

That means this sentence is structured as:

• يحتاج = needs
• المكتب = the office
• إلى موافقة = to approval / approval

This is different from English, where need usually takes a direct object. In Arabic, with احتاج / يحتاج, using إلى is the normal pattern.

The subject is المكتب.

The sentence begins with the verb يحتاج, so this is a verbal sentence in Arabic. In a verbal sentence, it is very common for the order to be:

• verb + subject + rest of sentence

So:

• يحتاج = verb
• المكتب = subject
• إلى موافقة = prepositional phrase

This word order is completely normal in Arabic. English learners often expect the subject first, but Arabic often starts with the verb.

Yes. That is also correct.

Both of these are possible:

• يحتاج المكتب إلى موافقة
• المكتب يحتاج إلى موافقة

The difference is mostly about style and emphasis:

• يحتاج المكتب إلى موافقة is a normal verb-first verbal sentence.
• المكتب يحتاج إلى موافقة puts the office first, which can sound slightly more topic-focused.

In many contexts, both would be translated the same way in English.

يحتاج is the present/imperfect form of the verb.

Here it means needs or is in need of.

Depending on context, the Arabic present can express:

• a present action: the office needs approval
• a general fact: the office requires approval

It is not past tense.
If you wanted needed, you would use the past form:

• احتاج المكتب إلى موافقة

المكتب has الـ, so it means the office.

موافقة does not have الـ, so it is indefinite and means approval, an approval, or some approval, depending on context.

So the sentence is roughly:

• The office needs approval
• or The office needs an approval

In English, approval is often left without an in this kind of sentence, so the office needs approval is usually the most natural translation.

If you wanted to refer to a specific approval already known to the listener, you could say:

• يحتاج المكتب إلى الموافقة

That would mean something more like the office needs the approval or needs the approval in question.

In fully vocalized Arabic, the sentence would be:

• يحتاجُ المكتبُ إلى موافقةٍ

Here is why:

• يحتاجُ ends in ـُ because it is present tense in the normal indicative form.
• المكتبُ is the subject, so it is nominative.
• موافقةٍ comes after the preposition إلى, so it is genitive.

In normal everyday writing, these short vowel endings are usually not written, so you often just see:

• يحتاج المكتب إلى موافقة

But the grammatical cases are still understood.

It does agree with المكتب.

المكتب is:

• singular
• masculine

So the verb is also singular masculine:

• يحتاج = he/it needs

Arabic present-tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number, but when the verb comes before the subject, Arabic often uses a singular verb form first. In this sentence, that works perfectly because the subject itself is singular anyway.

Since المكتب means office, English uses it, and Arabic uses the masculine singular form.

موافقة is a noun meaning approval, consent, or sometimes agreement, depending on context.

In this sentence, the most natural meaning is:

• approval
• possibly permission in some contexts

So يحتاج المكتب إلى موافقة usually means:

• The office needs approval
• or The office requires approval

The exact English word can change a little depending on the situation. For example, it could mean approval from management, a government office, or another authority.

A careful pronunciation would be:

• yaḥtāju al-maktabu ilā muwāfaqatin

If you include the full case endings, it is:

• يحتاجُ المكتبُ إلى موافقةٍ

A few pronunciation notes:

• يحتاج starts with ya-
• the ḥ in يحتاج is a deeper h sound than English h
• إلى is pronounced ilā
• موافقة is pronounced roughly muwāfaqa

In normal speech, many learners will hear something close to:

• yaḥtāj il-maktab ilā muwāfaqa

because short endings are often not pronounced fully outside careful formal reading.

It is a verbal sentence because it begins with a verb:

• يحتاج

That is one of the main sentence types in Arabic.

So the structure is:

• verb
  • subject
    • prepositional phrase

Here:

• يحتاج = verb
• المكتب = subject
• إلى موافقة = prepositional phrase

If the sentence began with المكتب, many teachers would describe it as a nominal sentence with a verbal predicate, even though the meaning stays very similar.