لدى صديقي سؤال بشأن عدد التكرارات.

لدى means with, at the disposal of, or more naturally in English, has in sentences like this.

So:

• لدى صديقي سؤال = My friend has a question

In Modern Standard Arabic, possession is often expressed not with a verb like to have, but with a structure using a word like لدى or عند.

A very literal breakdown is:

• لدى = with / in the possession of
• صديقي = my friend
• سؤال = a question

So the sentence literally feels like:

• With my friend is a question...

But natural English is:

• My friend has a question...

They are similar, and in many contexts both can express possession:

• لدى صديقي سؤال
• عند صديقي سؤال

Both can mean My friend has a question.

However, لدى is usually felt to be a bit more formal or written, which fits Modern Standard Arabic well.
عند is also very common, but can sound a bit more everyday depending on context.

So for MSA writing, لدى is a very normal choice here.

صديقي means my friend.

It is made from:

• صديق = friend
• ـي = my

So:

• صديق = a friend
• صديقي = my friend

When the possessive suffix ـي is attached, the noun becomes definite, because it now refers to a specific person: my friend.

That is why it does not take tanwīn:

• صديقٌ = a friend
• صديقي = my friend

Because لدى behaves like a preposition-like word, and the noun after it is its complement.

So the structure is:

• لدى صديقي = with my friend / my friend has

This whole phrase comes first in the sentence, and then سؤال comes after it.

Arabic often uses this kind of order in nominal sentences:

• prepositional phrase + noun

Here that gives:

• لدى صديقي سؤال

Literally: With my friend [there is] a question

سؤال is the main noun being talked about: a question.

In a traditional grammar explanation, this sentence is a kind of nominal sentence where the phrase لدى صديقي comes first, and سؤال is the delayed subject-like element (مبتدأ مؤخر in many analyses).

So:

• لدى صديقي = a fronted phrase meaning my friend has
• سؤال = a question

That is why سؤال is normally understood as nominative:

• سؤالٌ

In full vowelled form, you could write:

• لَدَى صَدِيقِي سُؤَالٌ بِشَأْنِ عَدَدِ التَّكْرَارَاتِ

سؤال is indefinite because the meaning is a question, not the question.

• سؤال = a question
• السؤال = the question

So:

• لدى صديقي سؤال = My friend has a question
• لدى صديقي السؤال would mean something more like My friend has the question, which is a different meaning and usually would need a special context.

Since the sentence is introducing a question that the friend has, the indefinite form is the natural one.

بشأن means regarding, concerning, or about.

So:

• سؤال بشأن عدد التكرارات = a question regarding the number of repetitions

It is a formal expression and very common in MSA.

You can think of it as similar to:

• عن = about
• بخصوص = regarding / concerning
• بشأن = regarding / concerning

Among these, بشأن sounds especially suitable in formal written Arabic.

Because عدد means number, and it usually needs something after it to say the number of what.

So:

• عدد = number
• عدد التكرارات = number of repetitions

This is an iḍāfa construction (a noun + a following genitive noun).

In this structure:

• the first noun is عدد = number
• the second noun is التكرارات = the repetitions

Together:

• عدد التكرارات = the number of repetitions

Because the sentence is talking about repeated occurrences, so the plural التكرارات means the repetitions.

Breakdown:

• تكرار = repetition
• تكرارات = repetitions

So:

• عدد التكرارات = the number of repetitions

This is perfectly understandable Arabic.

That said, learners may also see other expressions in real Arabic, such as:

• عدد مرات التكرار = the number of times of repetition / the number of repetitions

Sometimes Arabic prefers a phrasing with مرات depending on style and context. But عدد التكرارات is grammatically fine and clear.

In an iḍāfa construction, the second noun often determines whether the whole phrase is definite.

Here:

• عدد التكرارات = the number of repetitions

Because التكرارات is definite, the whole phrase is definite.

Compare:

• عدد تكراراتٍ = a number of repetitions or number of repetitions in a less definite sense
• عدد التكرارات = the number of the repetitions / the number of repetitions

In this sentence, the definite form makes good sense because it refers to the specific repetitions under discussion.

Yes. In fully vowelled MSA, the sentence would normally be read like this:

• لَدَى صَدِيقِي سُؤَالٌ بِشَأْنِ عَدَدِ التَّكْرَارَاتِ

The main case relationships are:

• صديقي: after لدى, so it is in the genitive position
• سؤالٌ: nominative
• بشأنِ: the preposition-like expression takes what follows in the genitive
• عددِ: genitive after بشأن
• التكراراتِ: genitive as the second part of the iḍāfa after عدد

In normal unvowelled writing, these endings are not shown, but they are still understood grammatically.

It is a nominal sentence, because it does not begin with a verb.

There is no Arabic verb meaning has here. Instead, Arabic expresses possession through the phrase:

• لدى صديقي = my friend has / with my friend

Then it states what is possessed:

• سؤال = a question

So the whole sentence is nominal in structure, even though the natural English translation uses the verb has.

Yes, but the original order is very natural in MSA.

Original:

• لدى صديقي سؤال بشأن عدد التكرارات.

This is a smooth way to say:

• My friend has a question regarding the number of repetitions.

You may also see similar formulations, such as:

• عند صديقي سؤال بشأن عدد التكرارات.
• لصديقي سؤال بشأن عدد التكرارات.

These are close in meaning, though the nuance and style can shift slightly.

The version with لدى sounds formal and standard.

A careful pronunciation would be approximately:

• ladā ṣadīqī suʾāl(un) bi-shaʾni ʿadadi t-tikrārāt(i)

A few notes:

• لدى = ladā
• صديقي = ṣadīqī
• سؤال contains a hamza: suʾāl
• بشأن also contains a hamza: bi-shaʾn
• التكرارات = at-tikrārāt, but after عددِ the l of ال assimilates to t, so you hear something like ʿadadi t-tikrārāt

In pause, the final case endings are often not fully pronounced.

A natural translation is:

• My friend has a question regarding the number of repetitions.

Other good translations are:

• My friend has a question about the number of repetitions.
• My friend has a question concerning the number of repetitions.

All of these capture the meaning well.