صديقي يفكر في المشروع الجديد قبل الاجتماع.

The word صديق means friend. When you add ـي to the end, it becomes my friend.

• صديق = friend
• صديقي = my friend

This ـي is a possessive suffix meaning my.

So Arabic often says possession by attaching a suffix directly to the noun, instead of using a separate word like my.

Arabic verbs already show the subject in many cases.

The verb يفكر means he thinks / he is thinking. The يـ at the beginning tells you it is third person masculine singular.

So even without a separate pronoun, يفكر already contains the idea of he.

In this sentence, صديقي is still included to specify exactly who is doing the action: my friend.

يفكر is the imperfect form of the verb فكّر.

• فكّر = to think
• يفكر = he thinks / he is thinking

This verb is in Form II: فكّر. A common pattern of Form II is that it often has a doubled middle consonant in the past tense.

In context, يفكر can mean either:

• he thinks
• he is thinking

Arabic does not need a separate verb like is for the present continuous here.

The verb فكّر is commonly used with في when it means to think about something.

So:

• يفكر في المشروع = he is thinking about the project

This is similar to how English uses about, but Arabic uses في with this verb.

It is best to learn this as a verb-preposition combination:

• فكر في = to think about

The prefix الـ is the Arabic definite article, meaning the.

• مشروع = a project / project
• المشروع = the project

So المشروع الجديد means the new project.

Arabic marks definiteness directly on nouns with الـ.

In Arabic, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• المشروع الجديد = the new project

Literally, the order is:

• the project the-new

This is normal Arabic word order for noun + adjective.

Because Arabic adjectives usually match the noun they describe in definiteness.

Since المشروع is definite, the adjective must also be definite:

• المشروع الجديد = the new project

Compare:

• مشروع جديد = a new project
• المشروع الجديد = the new project

So if the noun has الـ, the adjective usually does too.

قبل means before.

So:

• قبل الاجتماع = before the meeting

Here, قبل is expressing time. It tells us when the thinking happens.

• اجتماع = meeting
• الاجتماع = the meeting

So the full phrase means before the meeting.

There is one: it is attached to اجتماع as الـ.

• الاجتماع = the meeting

The word قبل does not need an article here. It simply introduces the time expression:

• قبل الاجتماع = before the meeting

So Arabic handles this neatly with قبل + a noun phrase.

Yes. This sentence uses a very common subject-first order:

• صديقي = my friend
• يفكر = is thinking
• في المشروع الجديد = about the new project
• قبل الاجتماع = before the meeting

So the order is basically:

subject + verb + prepositional phrase + time expression

Arabic can also use verb-first order in many contexts, but this subject-first style is very common and natural, especially in clear, straightforward prose.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

In MSA, the imperfect tense often covers both:

• he thinks
• he is thinking

So صديقي يفكر في المشروع الجديد can mean:

• My friend thinks about the new project
• My friend is thinking about the new project

Usually context tells you which is meant. In this sentence, with before the meeting, is thinking about may feel especially natural.

Yes, in fully vocalized formal Arabic there would be case endings, even though they are usually not written in everyday text.

A fully vocalized version could be:

صديقي يُفَكِّرُ في المشروعِ الجديدِ قبلَ الاجتماعِ

Very roughly:

• صديقي: subject, nominative in function
• يفكرُ: verb with a final ـُ
• المشروعِ: after في, so genitive
• الجديدِ: adjective matching المشروع
• قبلَ: often appears with fatḥa in this kind of usage
• الاجتماعِ: genitive after قبل in this construction

But for many learners, especially early on, it is fine first to understand the sentence without focusing too much on the full case system.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

ṣadīqī yufakkiru fī l-mashrūʿi l-jadīdi qabla l-ijtimāʿ

A few helpful notes:

• ص is an emphatic s
• خ / ح / ع are not in this sentence, but ع appears in المشروع and الاجتماع as ʿ, a deep throat sound
• ج in MSA is usually taught as j
• ق in قبل is a deep q sound

If you are a beginner, it is perfectly normal for ع and ق to take time.

The word صديق is the masculine form meaning friend.

If you wanted my female friend, you would normally say:

• صديقتي

So:

• صديقي = my male friend
• صديقتي = my female friend

Because the subject here is masculine singular, the verb also appears in the masculine singular form:

• يفكر = he thinks / he is thinking

Yes. If you remove الجديد, the sentence becomes:

صديقي يفكر في المشروع قبل الاجتماع.

That means:

My friend is thinking about the project before the meeting.

So الجديد simply adds the detail new. The rest of the sentence remains grammatically correct.

A very useful pattern here is:

[subject] + [verb] + في + [thing being thought about] + [time phrase]

Using this model, you can make similar sentences:

• الطالب يفكر في الامتحان = The student is thinking about the exam
• المدير يفكر في الخطة الجديدة = The manager is thinking about the new plan
• أخي يفكر في السفر قبل الصيف = My brother is thinking about traveling before the summer

So this sentence is a good model for practicing:

• possession with ـي
• the verb فكر في
• noun + adjective order
• time expressions with قبل