قبل أن أخرج من المكتب، أضع الدفتر والقلم في الحقيبة.

قبل أن means before [someone] does something.

So:

• قبل = before
• أن = a particle placed before a present-tense verb

Together, قبل أن أخرج means before I leave / before I go out.

A very common Arabic pattern is:

قبل أن + present verb

to express before doing something.

Yes. أن normally puts the following present-tense verb into the subjunctive.

So the verb is underlyingly أخرجُ (I leave / I go out), but after أن it becomes أخرجَ.

In fully vocalized Arabic:

• أخرجُ = indicative
• أن أخرجَ = subjunctive after أن

In normal unvocalized writing, you often just see أخرج without the ending marked, but grammatically the change is still there.

Because Arabic often uses the present tense here for a habitual, general, or regular action.

So this sentence suggests something like:

Before I leave the office, I put the notebook and the pen in the bag.

That sounds like a routine or repeated action.

The present tense in Arabic can cover meanings like:

• I do
• I am doing
• I usually do
• I will do

The exact meaning depends on context.

Because the verb خرج usually takes the preposition من when you mean go out of / leave from a place.

So:

• أخرج من المكتب = I leave the office / I go out of the office

Using من is the normal Arabic pattern.

Compare:

• خرج من البيت = he went out of the house
• خرج من الغرفة = he went out of the room

For an English speaker, it helps to learn خرج من as a set pattern.

Here المكتب means the office.

The word مكتب can mean different things depending on context, such as:

• office
• desk
• sometimes study or workplace

But with أخرج من المكتب and the overall sentence, office is the natural meaning.

Because they both have الـ, the Arabic definite article, so they mean:

• الدفتر = the notebook
• القلم = the pen

This usually suggests specific items already known from the situation or context.

Arabic often uses definiteness a bit more naturally than English does, so in some contexts it may sound fine even where English might say a notebook and a pen. But taken literally, these are definite: the notebook and the pen.

Because الدفتر والقلم are joined together as two objects of أضع:

• أضع الدفتر
• والقلم

Then في الحقيبة applies to both of them:

I put the notebook and the pen in the bag.

Arabic does not need to repeat the prepositional phrase. It works just like English:

• I put the notebook and the pen in the bag not
• I put the notebook in the bag and the pen in the bag

unless you want special emphasis.

Yes. Arabic word order is flexible.

This sentence begins with the time clause:

قبل أن أخرج من المكتب، أضع الدفتر والقلم في الحقيبة.

But you could also say:

أضع الدفتر والقلم في الحقيبة قبل أن أخرج من المكتب.

Both are correct. The difference is mainly in focus and style:

• starting with قبل أن أخرج... emphasizes the time setting
• starting with أضع... emphasizes the action first

In careful full vocalization, it would be:

قَبْلَ أَنْ أَخْرُجَ مِنَ الْمَكْتَبِ، أَضَعُ الدَّفْتَرَ وَالْقَلَمَ فِي الْحَقِيبَةِ.

Main points:

• قبلَ: usually with fatḥa
• أخرجَ: subjunctive after أن
• المكتبِ: genitive after من
• أضعُ: present indicative
• الدفترَ and القلمَ: accusative as direct objects
• الحقيبةِ: genitive after في

This is useful if you are studying formal grammar, though in everyday reading many short vowels are not written.

Here it means I leave / I go out.

That matters because in unvocalized Arabic, أخرج can look ambiguous to a learner.

There are two different possibilities in writing:

• أَخرجُ / أَخرجَ from خرج = I go out / I leave
• أُخرِجُ from أخرج (Form IV) = I take out / I cause to go out

In this sentence, the meaning is clearly I leave, because of من المكتب:

before I leave the office

So this is the verb from خرج, not I take out.

By itself, it most naturally sounds like a habitual or regular action:

Before I leave the office, I put the notebook and the pen in the bag.

That is, this is something the speaker normally does.

But depending on context, Arabic present tense can also describe a near-future action. So in the right situation, it could also mean something like:

Before I leave the office, I’m putting the notebook and pen in the bag.

Context decides.

The comma separates the introductory time clause from the main clause:

• قبل أن أخرج من المكتب = before I leave the office
• أضع الدفتر والقلم في الحقيبة = I put the notebook and the pen in the bag

In Arabic punctuation, this is normal and helps readability. It is similar to English punctuation after an introductory clause.

Literally, الحقيبة means the bag, because it has الـ.

So the phrase means:

in the bag

Usually this refers to a specific bag already understood from context, such as the speaker’s bag, work bag, or school bag.

Without الـ, في حقيبة would mean in a bag.

Usually, when أن is used this way, it is followed by a present-tense verb in the subjunctive:

• قبل أن أخرج
• قبل أن يذهب
• قبل أن نبدأ

That is the normal structure for before [someone] does...

If you want to talk about something that happened before another past event, Arabic often uses other structures instead of قبل أن + past. So for learners, the safest pattern to remember is:

قبل أن + present subjunctive

A careful pronunciation would be:

qabla an akhruja mina l-maktabi, aḍaʿu d-daftara wa-l-qalama fī l-ḥaqībati

A more word-by-word guide:

• قبل = qabla
• أن = an
• أخرج = akhruja
• من المكتب = mina l-maktabi
• أضع = aḍaʿu
• الدفتر = ad-daftara
• والقلم = wa-l-qalama
• في الحقيبة = fī l-ḥaqībati

The letter ض in أضع and the letter ع at the end are especially important sounds for pronunciation practice.