صديقتي لا تذهب إلى الجامعة اليوم لانها مريضة.

صديقتي means my female friend.

It is made of:

• صديقة = female friend
• ـي = my

So:

• صديقة = a female friend
• صديقتي = my female friend

If the friend were male, you would say صديقي.

Arabic can often use either:

• noun first: صديقتي لا تذهب...
• verb first: لا تذهب صديقتي...

Both are possible in MSA.

Starting with صديقتي makes the sentence feel a bit more like As for my friend, she is not going... or simply puts the topic first. This is very normal Arabic word order.

So this sentence is perfectly natural, and the noun-first order helps make the subject very clear right away.

Because the subject is feminine singular: صديقتي.

The verb ذهب means to go. In the present tense:

• يذهب = he goes
• تذهب = she goes

So:

• صديقتي تذهب = my friend goes
• صديقتي لا تذهب = my friend does not go

A learner may notice that تذهب can also mean you (masculine singular) go. That is true, but here the subject صديقتي makes it clear that it means she goes.

لا is the normal way to negate a present-tense verb in MSA.

So:

• تذهب = she goes
• لا تذهب = she does not go

In this sentence, لا negates the action of going.

This is different from English, where you need does not. Arabic simply puts لا before the present verb.

إلى means to or toward.

So:

• تذهب إلى الجامعة = she goes to the university

It is the normal preposition used with verbs of going when you want to show the destination.

Also, after a preposition like إلى, the following noun is grammatically in the genitive case. In fully vowelled Arabic, that would be:

• إلى الجامعةِ

In normal everyday writing, those case endings are usually not written, so you just see إلى الجامعة.

الجامعة means the university.

Arabic often uses the definite article الـ in places where English may say either:

• the university
• or just university

So إلى الجامعة can be translated naturally as:

• to the university
• or sometimes just to university / to college, depending on context and English style

In Arabic, using الجامعة here sounds very normal.

اليوم means today.

In Arabic, time expressions are fairly flexible. This sentence places اليوم after the destination:

• صديقتي لا تذهب إلى الجامعة اليوم

That is natural and means My friend is not going to the university today.

You can sometimes move time words around for emphasis, but this position is very common and straightforward.

In careful standard writing, it should be لأنها.

So the fully correct MSA spelling is:

• صديقتي لا تذهب إلى الجامعة اليوم لأنها مريضة.

Why?

• لأن or لأنّ means because
• ها here means she
• together: لأنها = because she...

Many people omit the hamza in informal writing and write لانها, but in correct MSA orthography, لأنها is preferred.

Because Arabic normally does not use a present-tense verb to be in sentences like this.

So:

• هي مريضة literally = she sick
• but it means she is sick

Therefore:

• لأنها مريضة = because she is sick

This is very common in Arabic. In the present tense, the linking verb is/am/are is usually omitted.

Because the person being described is feminine.

• مريض = sick for a masculine person
• مريضة = sick for a feminine person

Since صديقتي refers to a female friend, the adjective must also be feminine:

• صديقتي مريضة = my friend is sick

Arabic adjectives agree with the nouns they describe in gender and number.

لأنها introduces the reason.

It means because she...

So the sentence is structured like this:

• صديقتي لا تذهب إلى الجامعة اليوم = the main statement
• لأنها مريضة = the reason

Together:

• My friend is not going to the university today because she is sick.

A useful way to remember it is:

• لأن = because
• ها = she

So لأنها = because she

This is a very common question.

The letter ة is called tāʾ marbūṭa. Its pronunciation changes depending on context.

In مريضة

At the end of a word, when you pause, ة is usually pronounced like -a:

• مريضة = marīḍa

In صديقتي

When a suffix is attached, the ة is pronounced as t:

• صديقة = ṣadīqa
• صديقتي = ṣadīqatī

So the t sound appears because the word is connected to ـي.

This is why:

• صديقة sounds like ṣadīqa
• but صديقتي sounds like ṣadīqatī