تبدأ ورشة الفخار اليوم.

Because the subject is ورشة, and ورشة is a grammatically feminine singular noun in Arabic.

So Arabic uses the feminine singular verb form:

• تبدأ = it begins / she begins in the feminine singular

Even though English workshop has no grammatical gender, Arabic nouns do, and the verb must agree with the noun.

Yes. In Arabic, it is very common for the verb to come first and the subject to come after it.

So the structure here is:

• تبدأ = begins
• ورشة الفخار = the pottery workshop
• اليوم = today

A native English speaker may expect the noun after the verb to be an object, but in Arabic that is not necessarily true. Here ورشة الفخار is the subject.

Yes. By itself, تبدأ can be ambiguous.

Depending on context, it could mean:

• she begins
• it begins for a feminine noun
• you begin addressing one male

But in this sentence, the following noun ورشة makes the meaning clear: the verb is agreeing with a feminine singular subject, so it means the workshop begins.

Arabic often uses the present/imperfect tense for both:

• present actions
• near-future events

So تبدأ ورشة الفخار اليوم can naturally mean:

• The pottery workshop begins today
• The pottery workshop is starting today

If you want to make the future especially explicit, Arabic could also say:

• ستبدأ ورشة الفخار اليوم

But in many contexts, the time word اليوم already makes the meaning clear.

It is an iḍāfa construction, often called a construct phrase.

Literally, it is:

• ورشة = workshop
• الفخار = pottery / ceramics

So word-for-word it is something like:

• workshop of pottery

But in natural English, that becomes:

• pottery workshop

This is a very common Arabic pattern for expressing noun + noun relationships.

Because in an iḍāfa construction, the first noun normally does not take ال.

So Arabic says:

• ورشة الفخار

not:

• الورشة الفخار

The definiteness of the whole phrase is determined by the second noun. Since الفخار has ال, the whole phrase is definite.

So ورشة الفخار means:

• the pottery workshop

not just:

• a pottery workshop

In an iḍāfa construction, the second noun comes after the first and is in the genitive case.

So:

• ورشة = the first noun
• الفخار = the second noun, giving the type or relationship

With full case endings, it would be:

• ورشةُ الفخارِ

Here الفخارِ is genitive because it is the second term of the iḍāfa.

When ورشة stands alone, learners often think of it as warsha.

But in this sentence it is part of an iḍāfa, so the final ة is pronounced as t in connected reading.

So you would hear something like:

• warshat al-fikhār

And if full case endings are pronounced, then:

• warshatu al-fikhāri

This is a very important point: ة often sounds like -a in pause, but like t when grammar connects it to what follows.

It would be:

تبدأُ ورشةُ الفخارِ اليومَ

Those endings show the grammar clearly:

• تبدأُ = indicative present verb
• ورشةُ = nominative subject
• الفخارِ = genitive, because it is in iḍāfa
• اليومَ = accusative as an adverb of time

In normal everyday writing, these short vowel endings are usually not written.

اليوم is the normal Arabic word for today, and it is usually written with ال.

As for position, time expressions often come at the end of the sentence in Arabic, so:

• تبدأ ورشة الفخار اليوم

is completely natural.

But Arabic can also move it for emphasis, for example:

• اليوم تبدأ ورشة الفخار

That would mean the same basic thing, with a little more emphasis on today.