أضع الهاتف فوق الطاولة، ولا أضعه تحت الكتاب.

أضع means I put or I place.

It is a present-tense verb in Modern Standard Arabic. Depending on context, the Arabic present tense can also translate as:

• I put
• I am putting
• I do put

So in this sentence, أضع الهاتف means I put the phone.

The verb comes from the root و-ض-ع, which is related to putting or placing something.

The أ at the beginning marks the verb as first person singular in the present tense, so it means I.

In other words:

• أضع = I put
• تضع = you put or she puts
• يضع = he puts
• نضع = we put

So that initial أ is an important part of the verb form, not a separate word for I.

الهاتف means the phone because it has the definite article الـ.

Without الـ, هاتف would mean a phone or just phone in a general sense.

So:

• هاتف = a phone
• الهاتف = the phone

In this sentence, the object is specific, so Arabic uses the definite form.

In the second half, Arabic uses the attached pronoun ـه in أضعه instead of repeating الهاتف.

So:

• أضع الهاتف = I put the phone
• أضعه = I put it

This is very natural in Arabic, just as it is in English. Once the phone has already been mentioned, Arabic can refer back to it with ـه.

The ـه means him/it, and here it means it.

It refers back to الهاتف. Since الهاتف is a masculine singular noun, the pronoun used is ـه.

So:

• أضعه = I put it
• literally: I-put-it

If the noun were feminine, the pronoun would be different.

In Arabic, nouns have grammatical gender, not natural gender. That means an object can be grammatically masculine or feminine even though it is not biologically male or female.

الهاتف is grammatically masculine, so Arabic uses the masculine pronoun ـه.

This is very common in Arabic. English usually uses it for objects, but Arabic still has to choose masculine or feminine.

فوق means above, over, or on top of.

In this sentence, it is translated naturally as on the table or on top of the table.

It is similar to على, but not always exactly the same:

• على usually means on, often with direct contact
• فوق means above/on top of, and can focus more on position

In many everyday contexts, both could work, but they are not always interchangeable in every sentence.

So:

• على الطاولة = on the table
• فوق الطاولة = above/on top of the table

تحت means under or beneath.

So:

• تحت الكتاب = under the book

It is the opposite of فوق.

Together they form a very useful pair of location words:

• فوق = above / on top of
• تحت = under / below

Because فوق and تحت are followed by the thing whose position is being described.

So:

• فوق الطاولة = above/on top of the table
• تحت الكتاب = under the book

For a learner, it is easiest to think of فوق and تحت as words that are followed by a noun, much like English above and under.

Grammatically, they are often analyzed as nouns of location that form an iḍāfa-like structure with the following noun, which is why the following noun is in the genitive.

ولا here means and I do not or simply and not.

It is made of:

• و = and
• لا = not

Since أضع is a present-tense verb, لا is the normal way to negate it:

• أضع = I put
• لا أضع = I do not put

So:

• ولا أضعه تحت الكتاب = and I do not put it under the book

Because لا is the standard way to negate a present-tense verb in a simple statement.

So:

• أضع = I put
• لا أضع = I do not put

ليس is usually used to negate nominal sentences, not this kind of verbal sentence.

So in this sentence, لا is exactly what you would expect.

The fully vocalized form is:

أَضَعُ الْهَاتِفَ فَوْقَ الطَّاوِلَةِ، وَلَا أَضَعُهُ تَحْتَ الْكِتَابِ.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

aḍaʿu al-hātifa fawqa aṭ-ṭāwilati, wa-lā aḍaʿuhu taḥta al-kitābi

A few notes:

• ض is a heavy/emphatic d sound
• ع is the consonant ʿayn, which has no exact English equivalent
• الطاولة is pronounced aṭ-ṭāwila... because ط is a sun letter, so the l of ال is not pronounced there

Because in most real-world Arabic texts, short vowels and case endings are not written.

So you will usually see:

أضع الهاتف فوق الطاولة، ولا أضعه تحت الكتاب.

instead of the fully vocalized version:

أَضَعُ الْهَاتِفَ فَوْقَ الطَّاوِلَةِ، وَلَا أَضَعُهُ تَحْتَ الْكِتَابِ.

Arabic readers normally understand the vowels from context. Learners often need the fully vocalized form at first, but native readers usually do not.

If you want the full grammar:

• أَضَعُ: the verb, ending in ـُ
• الْهَاتِفَ: direct object, so it is accusative
• فَوْقَ: a locative expression, also accusative
• الطَّاوِلَةِ: genitive after فوق in this structure
• أَضَعُهُ: verb + object pronoun
• تَحْتَ: locative expression, accusative
• الْكِتَابِ: genitive after تحت

So the important pattern is:

• direct object: often accusative
• noun after فوق/تحت: genitive

In normal unvocalized writing, you usually will not see these endings written.

Yes. This is a very normal Arabic sentence.

It begins with a verb:

• أضع الهاتف فوق الطاولة
• literally: I put the phone above the table

Arabic often uses verb-first word order, especially in straightforward statements. The structure here is very natural:

• verb
• object
• place expression

The second half follows the same pattern:

• ولا أضعه تحت الكتاب

So this is a good example of a simple, standard verbal sentence in MSA.