المقهى مغلق اليوم، لذلك أقرأ الصحيفة في البيت.

In Arabic, the verb to be is usually not written in the present tense.

So:

• المقهى مغلق اليوم = The café is closed today

Arabic simply puts the subject and the predicate next to each other.

This is called a nominal sentence:

• المقهى = the café
• مغلق = closed
• اليوم = today

If you wanted was or will be, Arabic would use an actual verb, such as كان or سيكون.

Because مغلق here is not an adjective directly modifying المقهى. It is the predicate of the sentence.

Compare these:

• المقهى مغلق = The café is closed
• المقهى المغلق = the closed café

In the first one, مغلق is telling you something about the café, so it stays indefinite.

In the second one, المغلق is a true adjective attached to المقهى, so it matches it in definiteness.

This is a very common pattern in Arabic.

مغلق is not a finite verb here. It is a passive participle from the verb أغلق (to close).

So مغلق literally means something like:

• closed
• shut

In sentences like this, it behaves very much like an adjective in English:

• الباب مغلق = the door is closed
• المقهى مغلق = the café is closed

So grammatically it is a participle, but for a learner it is often easiest to understand it as an adjective-like word.

Because اليوم can function directly as an adverb of time.

So:

• المقهى مغلق اليوم = The café is closed today

Arabic does this a lot with time words:

• اليوم = today
• غدًا = tomorrow
• أمس = yesterday

You do not need a preposition like in here.

In grammatical terms, اليوم is a ظرف زمان — an adverbial expression of time.

لذلك means therefore, so, for that reason, or because of that.

In this sentence:

• المقهى مغلق اليوم، لذلك أقرأ الصحيفة في البيت.
• The café is closed today, so/therefore I read the newspaper at home.

It links the second clause to the first as a result.

A useful contrast:

• لأن = because
• لذلك = therefore / so

So:

• أقرأ في البيت لأن المقهى مغلق = I read at home because the café is closed
• المقهى مغلق، لذلك أقرأ في البيت = The café is closed, therefore I read at home

Yes. The Arabic imperfect tense can cover both:

• I read
• I am reading
• sometimes even I do read

So أقرأ can mean either:

• a habitual action: I read
• an action happening now: I am reading

The context tells you which one is meant.

Here, because of today and therefore, it can naturally mean something like:

• So I’m reading the newspaper at home or
• So I read the newspaper at home

Also, the prefix أـ on أقرأ marks first person singular: I.

Because there are really two different things happening in the word:

• the first أ is the prefix for I
• the final أ belongs to the root قرأ (to read)

So أقرأ is pronounced roughly:

• ʾaqraʾu

You start with a hamza at the beginning, then at the end there is another glottal stop after qra.

A slow breakdown:

• أَ = ʾa
• قْرَ = qra
• أُ = ʾu

So: ʾaqraʾu

This word can feel tricky at first because English speakers are not always used to pronouncing a glottal stop at the end of a word segment.

Because Arabic often uses the definite article where English might use either the or a, depending on context.

So الصحيفة here is:

• the newspaper

This may mean:

• a specific newspaper the speaker has in mind
• the usual newspaper they read
• a contextually understood newspaper

If you said صحيفة, that would be more like:

• a newspaper

Both are possible in Arabic, but الصحيفة sounds natural if the speaker means a particular or familiar newspaper.

This is because of sun letters and moon letters.

• ص is a sun letter
• ب is a moon letter

So:

• الصحيفة is pronounced aṣ-ṣaḥīfah, not al-ṣaḥīfah
• البيت is pronounced al-bayt

With sun letters, the l of الـ assimilates into the next consonant.

Examples:

• الشمس → ash-shams
• الصوت → aṣ-ṣawt
• الصحيفة → aṣ-ṣaḥīfah

But with moon letters, the l stays pronounced:

• البيت → al-bayt
• القمر → al-qamar

Because البيت in Arabic often works the way home does in English.

So:

• في البيت can mean in the house
• but very often it simply means at home

That is completely normal and idiomatic.

For example:

• أنا في البيت = I am at home
• أدرس في البيت = I study at home

So in your sentence, في البيت is best understood as at home, even though the literal words are in the house.

Because Arabic allows both major sentence types:

1. Nominal sentence: starts with a noun
   
   • المقهى مغلق اليوم
2. Verbal sentence: starts with a verb
   
   • أقرأ الصحيفة في البيت

The first clause is presenting a state or situation: the café is closed.

The second clause describes an action: I read the newspaper at home.

This switch is very natural in Arabic.

A fully vocalized version would be:

المَقْهَى مُغْلَقٌ اليَوْمَ، لِذٰلِكَ أَقْرَأُ الصَّحِيفَةَ فِي البَيْتِ.

A few key points:

• المقهى = nominative as the subject of a nominal sentence
  
  • its final case vowel is not visible because of the final ى
• مغلقٌ = nominative, because it is the predicate
• اليومَ = accusative, because it is an adverb of time
• أقرأُ = indicative
• الصحيفةَ = accusative, because it is the direct object
• في البيتِ = البيتِ is genitive after في

In normal Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually omitted.

Yes, to some extent.

For example, the first clause could also be:

• اليوم المقهى مغلق

This gives a bit more emphasis to today.

And in the second clause, you could move في البيت for emphasis:

• لذلك في البيت أقرأ الصحيفة

But the original sentence:

• المقهى مغلق اليوم، لذلك أقرأ الصحيفة في البيت.

is very natural and straightforward.

For learners, it is best to treat the original order as the neutral, standard version.