أرى شكل الطاولة.

A careful pronunciation is ʾarā shakla aṭ-ṭāwilah.

A few notes:

• أرى = ʾarā = I see
• شكل = shakl or shakla when the case ending is pronounced
• الطاولة is written with ال, but because ط is a sun letter, it is pronounced aṭ-ṭāwilah, not al-ṭāwilah

If you pronounce full case endings in connected speech, it can be ʾarā shakla aṭ-ṭāwilati. At the end of a sentence, Arabic usually pauses, so the last word is often heard as aṭ-ṭāwilah.

Because the verb itself already tells you the subject.

In أرى, the prefix أ- marks first person singular in the present tense, so أرى already means I see. Arabic often leaves subject pronouns unstated when the verb makes them clear.

You can say أنا أرى شكل الطاولة, but أنا is usually only added for emphasis or contrast.

أرى is the present-tense first-person singular form of the verb رأى = to see.

This verb is a bit irregular:

• past: رأى = he saw
• present: يرى = he sees
• first person present: أرى = I see

The final ى shows a long ā sound here. So although the dictionary form is رأى, the present stem looks a little different from what an English speaker might expect.

شكل means shape or form.

In this sentence, it is the direct object of أرى, so the structure is:

• أرى = I see
• شكل = shape
• الطاولة = the table

So literally the sentence is I see the shape of the table.

Because شكل الطاولة is an iḍāfa construction, often called a construct phrase.

In an iḍāfa:

• the first noun usually does not take الـ
• the second noun determines whether the whole phrase is definite

So:

• شكل الطاولة = the shape of the table / the table’s shape

Even though شكل itself has no الـ, the whole phrase is definite because الطاولة is definite.

Yes. This is the normal Arabic way to express of relationships between nouns.

Arabic does not need a separate word like of here. Instead, it puts the two nouns together in an iḍāfa:

• شكل = shape
• الطاولة = the table

So شكل الطاولة literally works like shape the-table, but the meaning is the shape of the table.

In fully vowelled Arabic, the sentence is:

أرى شكلَ الطاولةِ

Here is why:

• شكلَ is accusative because it is the direct object of أرى
• الطاولةِ is genitive because it is the second noun in an iḍāfa

In normal Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually omitted, so you often just see:

أرى شكل الطاولة

Because ط is one of the sun letters.

When الـ comes before a sun letter, the l sound assimilates to the next consonant. So:

• written: الطاولة
• pronounced: aṭ-ṭāwilah

This is a very common feature in Arabic pronunciation. The spelling stays the same, but the pronunciation changes.

The final ة is called tāʾ marbūṭa.

Its pronunciation depends on context:

• in pause, it is usually pronounced -ah
• when grammatical endings are pronounced in connected speech, it becomes -t

So:

• pausal form: الطاولة → aṭ-ṭāwilah
• with full case ending: الطاولةِ → aṭ-ṭāwilati

This is why learners sometimes hear both -a/-ah and -t from words ending in ة.

Yes, that is grammatical.

But in ordinary Arabic, أنا is often unnecessary because أرى already means I see. Adding أنا can make the subject more explicit, for example:

• for emphasis
• for contrast, as in I see it, but you do not

So both are correct:

• أرى شكل الطاولة
• أنا أرى شكل الطاولة

The first is simply more neutral and natural in many contexts.

In this sentence, yes, it most naturally means literal seeing: I see.

However, أرى can also mean something like I think or I consider in other contexts, especially with a clause after it, such as أرى أن... = I think that...

But with شكل الطاولة, the literal meaning I see the shape of the table is the straightforward one here.