اليوم نحن نذهب إلى مطعم مع صديق.

Today we go to a restaurant with a friend.

Breakdown of اليوم نحن نذهب إلى مطعم مع صديق.

• الى: to
• يذهب: to go
• اليوم: today
• نحن: we
• مطعم: restaurant
• مع: with
• صديق: friend

Questions & Answers about اليوم نحن نذهب إلى مطعم مع صديق.

Why does the sentence start with اليوم? Is that the normal word order?

Yes. Starting with a time word like اليوم (today) is very common in Modern Standard Arabic. It’s a kind of fronting for emphasis/topic: “Today, …”
A more “plain” order is also possible, e.g. نذهب اليوم إلى مطعم… but placing اليوم first is natural and clear.

Why is نحن included? Doesn’t نذهب already mean “we go”?

Correct: نذهب already encodes we (prefix نـ). نحن is optional and is used for emphasis or clarity (like “we (as for us)…”).
So both are grammatical:

• اليوم نذهب إلى مطعم… (neutral)
• اليوم نحن نذهب إلى مطعم… (more emphatic / contrastive)

How do I know نذهب is “we go”?

The verb نذهب is the imperfect/present form of ذهب (to go). The prefix نـ marks 1st person plural in the imperfect:

• أذهب = I go
• تذهب = you (m.s.) go / she goes (context decides)
• نذهب = we go
• يذهب = he goes

Does this sentence mean “we go” (habitually) or “we are going” (right now)?

In MSA, the imperfect نذهب can cover both present/habitual and near-future/ongoing, depending on context. With اليوم it often implies a specific plan for today, close to “Today we’re going…”
If you want to make “right now” more explicit, you might add something like الآن (now) or use context.

Why is it إلى مطعم and not لمطعم?

إلى is the straightforward preposition meaning to / toward a place: نذهب إلى مطعم = we go to a restaurant.
لـ can sometimes mean to in the sense of for or belonging to, and with verbs of motion it can appear in some styles, but إلى is the safest, most standard choice for destination.

Why is مطعم indefinite (“a restaurant”)? How would I say “the restaurant”?

Because مطعم has no الـ, it’s indefinite: a restaurant.
To say the restaurant, add الـ:

• إلى المطعم = to the restaurant

Why is it مع صديق and not مع صديقٍ? What’s going on with case endings?

In fully vowelled (formal) MSA, nouns after prepositions take the genitive case. So strictly it would be:

• مع صديقٍ (with a friend)
  In most everyday writing, short vowel case endings are omitted, so you usually just see مع صديق. Both refer to the same underlying grammar.

Should it be مع صديقٍ or مع صديقٍ لنا / مع صديقنا to mean “with our friend”?

مع صديق by itself normally means with a friend (unspecified).
If you mean with our friend, you can say:

• مع صديقٍ لنا = with a friend of ours (a bit more explicit/formal)
• مع صديقِنا = with our friend (attached pronoun; note the genitive صديقِ in fully vowelled form)

Why is صديق singular when English might say “a friend” or “friends”? Can it be plural?

It’s singular here because it means a friend. If you mean with friends, use the plural:

• مع أصدقاء (often written without case endings; fully vowelled أصدقاءَ/أصدقاءِ depending on context)

Is the sentence missing “a” before صديق? How does Arabic handle articles?

Arabic doesn’t have an indefinite article like a/an. Indefiniteness is usually shown simply by not using الـ:

• مطعم = a restaurant
• صديق = a friend
  Definiteness is shown with الـ or possession:
• المطعم = the restaurant
• صديقنا = our friend (definite by possession)

Could I omit إلى and just say نذهب مطعم?

No. In MSA you normally need the preposition إلى for “go to (a place).” Without it, the phrase sounds incomplete or wrong in standard usage.

Would it be more natural to say نذهب إلى مطعمٍ with tanwīn? What does مطعمٍ mean?

In fully vowelled formal MSA, an indefinite noun in the genitive after إلى takes -in tanwīn:

• إلى مطعمٍ = to a restaurant
  In ordinary writing, you typically see إلى مطعم without the diacritics, but the meaning is the same.

Is there a difference between نذهب and نَذْهَبُ? Why isn’t the final vowel written?

نذهب is the normal unvowelled spelling. In fully vowelled MSA it’s نَذْهَبُ (with ـُ at the end in indicative mood). Most texts omit these short vowels because readers can infer them from grammar and context.

Could I say اليوم سنذهب instead of اليوم نحن نذهب?

Yes. سنذهب ( سـ + نذهب ) explicitly marks the near future: “Today we will go / we’re going to go.”
So:

• اليوم نحن نذهب… = today we go/are going (context-based)
• اليوم سنذهب… = today we will go (more explicitly future/planned)

Is اليوم always “today,” or can it mean something else?

اليوم primarily means today. In some contexts it can also mean nowadays / these days, but with a concrete action like نذهب إلى مطعم it’s understood as today.

Does مع always mean “with”? Any special grammar after it?

مع means with (and sometimes along with). Grammatically it behaves like a preposition, so the noun after it is in the genitive case in fully vowelled MSA: مع صديقٍ.