صديقي يسمع موسيقى في المقهى بعد العمل.

The base word is صديق, which means friend. When Arabic adds the suffix ـي, it means my.

So:

صديق = friend
صديقي = my friend

This is one of the most common ways Arabic shows possession.

Because the verb يسمع already tells you the subject is he.

Arabic verbs usually include information about:

• person
• number
• gender

So يسمع means he hears / he listens / he is listening. Since صديقي already names who that he is, adding هو would usually be unnecessary unless you wanted special emphasis.

يسمع is the imperfect verb form, third-person masculine singular.

That means it matches a subject like صديقي. In English, it can correspond to:

• he hears
• he listens
• he is listening

The exact English choice depends on context. Arabic often uses the imperfect where English has either a simple present or a present progressive.

Its basic meaning is he hears. But with something like music, it is often translated naturally as listens to music.

A more explicit verb for listen in MSA is يستمع إلى.

So you may see both:

• يسمع موسيقى
• يستمع إلى موسيقى

The second is often more precise for listen to music, but the first is understandable and common in learning materials.

Because يسمع takes a direct object.

So Arabic says:

يسمع موسيقى = literally he hears music

But if you use يستمع, then you normally need إلى:

يستمع إلى موسيقى = he listens to music

This is similar to English:

• hear music
• listen to music

Different verbs require different patterns.

Here موسيقى means music in a general sense, not the music.

Arabic often leaves a noun indefinite when speaking about something general:

• أقرأ كتابًا = I read a book
• يسمع موسيقى = he listens to music

Also, in normal Arabic writing, short vowels and nunation are usually not written, so indefiniteness is often less visible than it would be in a fully vocalized text.

المقهى means the café. Arabic often uses الـ when the place is specific or understood from context.

العمل literally means the work or the job, but Arabic commonly uses the definite article in expressions where English uses a bare noun. So بعد العمل is a natural way to say after work.

So this is not a word-for-word match with English usage. Arabic often prefers definiteness where English does not.

After the preposition في (in), the following noun is in the genitive case. So المقهى is grammatically genitive here.

With بعد, the structure is a little different. بعد functions like after, and the noun after it is also put in the genitive relationship:

• بعد العمل = after work

In everyday writing, you usually do not see the case endings, but the grammar is still there underneath.

That letter is alif maqṣūra. It looks like ى, but it is pronounced like a long ā sound, not like y.

So:

• موسيقى is pronounced roughly mūsīqā
• المقهى is pronounced roughly al-maqhā

This is an important spelling pattern in Arabic.

Yes. Arabic allows more than one word order.

The given sentence starts with the subject:

صديقي يسمع موسيقى...

That is a common and natural structure. You could also say:

يسمع صديقي موسيقى في المقهى بعد العمل

Both are grammatical. Starting with صديقي can make my friend the topic or point of focus, while verb-first order is also very normal in Arabic.

A fully vocalized version could be:

صَدِيقِي يَسْمَعُ مُوسِيقَى فِي الْمَقْهَى بَعْدَ الْعَمَلِ

In normal Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually omitted, so learners usually see:

صديقي يسمع موسيقى في المقهى بعد العمل

Also, some case endings are not clearly visible in spelling here because of the way words like موسيقى and المقهى are written, and because صديقي ends with the possessive suffix ـي.

The letter ع appears in:

• يسمع
• بعد
• العمل

This sound is called ʿayn. It does not have a true equivalent in English. It is produced deeper in the throat than ordinary English sounds.

For a learner, the most important first step is:

• notice that it is a real consonant
• do not ignore it completely
• try to give it a distinct throat sound

You do not need perfect pronunciation immediately, but it is worth practicing early because ع is very common in Arabic.