من عادة صديقتي أن تمشي في هذا الشارع كل مساء.

this

Breakdown of من عادة صديقتي أن تمشي في هذا الشارع كل مساء.

• ي: my
• صديقة: friend
• أن: (subordinating particle)

Questions & Answers about من عادة صديقتي أن تمشي في هذا الشارع كل مساء.

What does من عادة صديقتي mean as a phrase?

It is an idiomatic way to say it is my friend’s habit to... or my friend usually...

Literally, من عادة صديقتي is something like among my friend’s habits or it is from my friend’s habit/custom. In natural English, we do not usually translate من word-for-word here. The whole expression works as a set phrase.

So:

• من عادة صديقتي أن تمشي...
  = It is my friend’s habit to walk...
• More naturally: My friend usually walks...

Why does the sentence begin with من?

Here من is not being used in its basic literal sense of from. In this pattern, من عادة + noun + أن..., it helps form an idiomatic expression meaning it is someone’s habit to...

So although من often means from, here you should learn the whole chunk:

• من عادة فلان أن... = It is X’s habit to...

This is very common in Arabic. It is better to think of it as a fixed expression rather than translate each word separately.

Why is it عادة and not العادة?

Because Arabic commonly uses the indefinite noun in this expression:

• من عادة فلان أن...

Using عادة without الـ gives the sense of