هل أنت جاهزة للرحلة، أم أنت مشغولة في العمل؟

(yes/no question marker)

Breakdown of هل أنت جاهزة للرحلة، أم أنت مشغولة في العمل؟

• عمل: work
• أنت: you
• أم: or

Questions & Answers about هل أنت جاهزة للرحلة، أم أنت مشغولة في العمل؟

Why are جاهزة and مشغولة in the feminine form?

Because the sentence is addressing a woman. In Arabic, adjectives agree with the person they describe in gender and number. Since the subject is أنتِ (you, feminine singular), the predicates are feminine singular too:

• جاهزة = ready (to a woman)
• مشغولة = busy (to a woman)

If you were speaking to a man, you would say:

هل أنتَ جاهز للرحلة، أم أنتَ مشغول في العمل؟

But the sentence only shows أنت. How do I know it is feminine?

In normal Arabic writing, أنت is often written the same for both masculine and feminine. The difference is usually clear from context or from agreement elsewhere in the sentence.

Here, the words جاهزة and مشغولة are feminine, so they show that أنت must mean you addressed to a woman.

If fully vowelled, the difference is visible:

• أنتَ = you (masculine singular)
• أنتِ = you (feminine singular)

What does هل do at the beginning of the sentence?

هل is a question particle. It turns the sentence into a yes/no-type question or a question asking the listener to choose between alternatives.

So Arabic does not need a helping verb like do/are at the front the way English often does.
Instead of changing word order, Arabic can simply add هل.