يقول صديقي: النجدة!

يقول means he says or he is saying. In Arabic, the present tense often covers both the simple present and the present progressive, so the exact English translation depends on context.

The verb is from the root ق-و-ل, which is connected with saying and speech.

Arabic often uses verb-first word order, especially in formal written language like Modern Standard Arabic. So يقول صديقي is a very normal way to say my friend says.

You can also say صديقي يقول. That version is also correct, but it puts a bit more focus on my friend.

Because the verb itself already includes that information. يقول is a third-person masculine singular verb form, so it already means he says.

When the subject is stated explicitly, as in صديقي, Arabic usually does not add a separate pronoun like هو unless there is a special reason for emphasis.

صديقي means my friend.

The ending ـي is the suffix for my. So:

• صديق = friend
• صديقي = my friend

This suffix attaches directly to the noun.

Because Arabic does not normally put الـ on a noun when it is directly possessed by a suffix like ـي.

So Arabic says:

• صديقي = my friend

not:

• الصديقي

The possession itself already makes the noun definite.

It is pronounced approximately ṣadīqī.

A few pronunciation points:

• ص is a heavy/emphatic s
• د is d
• ي here gives a long ee sound
• ق is a deep q sound, not an English k
• the final ـي is another long ee, meaning my

So the word has two long ee sounds: ṣa-dī-qī.

It is pronounced approximately an-najda or an-najdah, depending on how carefully the final vowel is pronounced.

This is because the ل of الـ is assimilated before ن, since ن is a sun letter. So although it is written النجدة, you say it more like:

• an-najda

not:

• al-najda

Because Arabic is using a noun here, literally something like the rescue or the help, as an exclamation.

This is a common pattern in Arabic: a definite noun can be used as a cry or call. So even though English says Help!, Arabic can say النجدة!

The important thing is to understand it as a fixed exclamation meaning Help!

It is a noun, not a verb.

Its basic meaning is related to rescue or aid, but in this context it is used idiomatically as a shout for help. So although English often uses a bare form that feels almost verbal, Arabic here uses a noun as an exclamation.

The colon introduces direct speech, just like in English. The sentence is basically:

My friend says: Help!

Arabic punctuation in modern writing often follows familiar international conventions, so a colon here is completely normal. Quotation marks could also be used in some writing styles.

Yes. In fully vowelled Classical or formal MSA reading, you could analyze the sentence roughly as:

• يقولُ — the verb in the indicative
• صديقي — the subject, nominative
• النَّجدةَ! — often read with a final fatḥa in this kind of exclamatory usage

But in ordinary unvowelled Arabic text, these short endings are usually not written, and many learners first meet the sentence simply as:

يقول صديقي: النجدة!

You would normally say:

تقول صديقتي: النجدة!

Changes:

• يقول becomes تقول because the subject is feminine singular
• صديقي becomes صديقتي = my female friend

So the grammar changes to match the gender of the speaker being described.