البطل يشبه صديقي.

In careful MSA, you can read it as al-baṭalu yushbihu ṣadīqī.

A few pronunciation notes:

• ط in بطل is an emphatic t sound.
• ص in صديقي is an emphatic s sound.
• يُشْبِهُ starts with yu-, not ya- here.

In less formal reading, final case vowels are often not pronounced, so you may hear something closer to al-baṭal yushbih ṣadīqī.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

So:

• بطل = a hero / a champion
• البطل = the hero / the champion

يشبه is a present/imperfect verb, here meaning resembles or looks like.

It is:

• 3rd person
• masculine
• singular

So it matches he or it.

A learner may also notice that the dictionary form is often given as أشبهَ. In the present tense, that becomes يُشْبِهُ.

In Arabic, present-tense verbs often begin with a prefix that shows the person.

Here, يـ marks he or it:

• يشبه = he resembles / it resembles

Because البطل is masculine singular, يشبه is the right form.

Arabic usually does not need a separate subject pronoun when the verb already shows the subject.

So يشبه already includes the idea of he resembles.

That means Arabic does not need to say هو here. A separate هو would usually only be added for emphasis or contrast.

The ending ـي here means my.

So:

• صديق = friend
• صديقي = my friend

This ـي is an attached pronoun, not a separate word.

A noun with a possessive ending like ـي is already definite.

So:

• صديقي already means my friend
• you do not add الـ to make it definite

In other words, possession already makes the noun specific.

Because يشبه takes a direct object in this kind of sentence.

So Arabic says:

• يشبه صديقي = resembles my friend

This is similar to English resemble, which also normally takes a direct object:

• He resembles my friend not
• He resembles to my friend

Yes, you can also say يشبه البطل صديقي.

The difference is mainly in structure and emphasis:

• البطل يشبه صديقي begins with the noun, so it feels more like As for the hero, he resembles my friend
• يشبه البطل صديقي begins with the verb, so it is a more straightforward verbal sentence

Both are acceptable in MSA.

Because it starts with البطل, many grammarians analyze it as a nominal sentence:

• البطل = the topic / subject of the sentence
• يشبه صديقي = a verbal clause acting as the predicate

In that analysis, the verb contains an implied he that refers back to البطل.

For a beginner, though, the simplest way to understand it is just:

• the hero
  • resembles my friend

In fully vowelled MSA, the sentence is:

البَطَلُ يُشْبِهُ صَدِيقِي

A few grammar points:

• البطلُ is nominative
• يُشْبِهُ is in the indicative
• صديقي functions as the direct object

You may wonder why صديقي does not visibly change for the accusative. With the my suffix ـي, the case ending is not separately obvious in the normal spelling and pronunciation.

Usually, yes.

صديق is grammatically masculine, so صديقي normally means my male friend.

For my female friend, Arabic would usually say:

• صديقتي

Also, صديقي does not tell you whether the speaker is male or female. Both men and women can say صديقي when talking about a male friend.