يستلم العريس والعروس التهاني قبل شهر العسل.

Because the verb comes before the subject.

In standard Arabic, when the sentence order is verb + subject, the verb is often kept in the singular and agrees mainly in gender, not full number. So:

• يستلم العريس والعروس... = verb first, so يستلم stays singular

If you put the subject first, full agreement is expected:

• العريس والعروس يستلمان التهاني = now the verb becomes dual: يستلمان

So the singular verb here is normal Arabic grammar, not a mistake.

Arabic uses masculine agreement by default for mixed groups.

Since the subject includes:

• العريس = masculine
• العروس = feminine

the combined subject is treated as masculine for agreement purposes.

That is why the verb is يستلم rather than تستلم.

If both people were feminine, you would use feminine agreement instead.

Because both nouns are definite.

Arabic usually repeats the definite article on each coordinated noun:

• العريس والعروس = the groom and the bride

This is the normal way to say it. Arabic does not usually rely on one الـ to cover both nouns the way English can sometimes rely on one the for a pair.

So repeating الـ here is completely natural.

التهاني means congratulations or felicitations.

It is a plural noun related to تهنئة, which means congratulation or act of congratulating.

Arabic often uses the plural here, just as English commonly says congratulations rather than a congratulation.

Grammatically in this sentence, التهاني is the direct object: it is the thing being received.

That is a very common difference between Arabic and English.

In Arabic, الـ is often used when the thing is understood from the situation. At a wedding, the congratulations are a known, expected set of greetings, so التهاني sounds natural.

So even though English says simply congratulations, Arabic can naturally say:

• التهاني

without it sounding strange.

It is understandable, but many native speakers would find يتلقى التهاني more idiomatic in formal Arabic.

Compare:

• يستلم التهاني = receives the congratulations
• يتلقى التهاني = receives congratulations, often more natural in this context

So the sentence is grammatical, but if you want a very natural formal phrasing, you will often hear:

• يتلقى العريس والعروس التهاني قبل شهر العسل

There are two main clues:

1. Word order

   • After the verb, the sentence gives the doer first: العريس والعروس
   • Then it gives what is received: التهاني

2. Case endings in fully vowelled Arabic

   • العريسُ والعروسُ would be nominative
   • التهانيَ would be accusative

In normal unvowelled text, learners often rely on both context and typical word order.

This phrase means before the honeymoon.

It is built from:

• قبل = before
• شهر العسل = honeymoon

More literally, شهر العسل means month of honey.

So the structure is:

• قبل + noun phrase
• قبل شهر العسل = before the honeymoon

In grammar terms, قبل functions as a time expression, and the phrase after it explains before what.

Because شهر العسل is an iḍāfa construction, often called a possessive or noun-link construction.

In an iḍāfa:

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

So:

• شهر العسل = literally month of the honey
• as a whole, it means the honeymoon

Even though شهر has no الـ, the whole phrase is definite because العسل is definite.

Yes. Arabic word order is flexible.

You can also say:

• العريس والعروس يستلمان التهاني قبل شهر العسل

This version puts the subject first. When you do that, the verb now shows full agreement, so it becomes يستلمان.

So both patterns are possible:

• يستلم العريس والعروس...
• العريس والعروس يستلمان...

The first is more classically verb-initial; the second may feel clearer to many learners because it looks more like English subject-first order.

A fully vowelled version would be:

يستلمُ العريسُ والعروسُ التهانيَ قبلَ شهرِ العسلِ.

Here is why:

• يستلمُ: indicative verb
• العريسُ: nominative subject
• العروسُ: also nominative, coordinated with the first subject
• التهانيَ: accusative direct object
• قبلَ: accusative adverbial/time expression
• شهرِ: genitive because it is linked to قبل
• العسلِ: genitive as the second part of the iḍāfa

This is a useful sentence for seeing how case works in standard Arabic.

Not exactly. Because ت is a sun letter, the ل of الـ is not pronounced separately.

So التهاني is pronounced roughly:

• at-tahānī

By contrast, in words like:

• العريس
• العروس
• العسل

the first letter is not a sun letter, so the ل of الـ is pronounced normally.