قبل أن تأتي الضيفة، تنظف أختي الغرفة وترتب المائدة هناك.

قبل means before. When Arabic wants to say before + a whole clause with a verb, it commonly uses قبل أن + a present-tense verb.

So:

• قبل أن تأتي الضيفة = before the guest comes

If قبل were followed by just a noun, أن would not be needed.

Because أن is a particle that normally introduces a verb clause and puts the following present-tense verb into the subjunctive.

In fully vocalized Arabic, this would be read as تأتيَ. In ordinary unvocalized writing, that change is often not visible, so learners just see تأتي.

That is a very common learner question, because تأتي can look ambiguous in unvocalized Arabic.

It can represent either:

• she comes
• you (masculine singular) come

Here, the following noun الضيفة tells you the subject is the female guest, so the meaning is she comes.

Because الضيفة means the female guest, and it is a feminine singular noun. Arabic verbs agree with their subjects, so the verb is also feminine singular:

• تأتي الضيفة = the female guest comes

If the subject were masculine, the verb form would be different.

In the present tense, تـ can mark several forms, including 3rd person feminine singular.

Here, the subject is أختي = my sister, which is feminine singular, so:

• تنظف = she cleans
• ترتب = she arranges / sets in order

So the verbs match أختي.

Because Arabic commonly allows verb–subject word order.

So this is perfectly natural:

• تنظف أختي الغرفة

Literally, that is something like:

• cleans my sister the room

But in good English, of course, it means:

• My sister cleans the room

You could also say:

• أختي تنظف الغرفة

That version is also correct, but it puts a little more focus on my sister as the subject.

أختي is made of:

• أخت = sister
• ـي = my

So أختي literally means my sister.

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

Because Arabic verbs already contain subject information.

For example:

• تنظف already means she cleans
• ترتب already means she arranges / sets

The noun أختي is added to specify who that she is. Arabic does this very often.

The prefix الـ means the.

So:

• الضيفة = the guest
• الغرفة = the room
• المائدة = the table

Arabic uses the definite article when the speaker has a specific person or thing in mind, or when it is understood from context. So the sentence is talking about a particular guest, room, and table.

Usually مائدة means a dining table or a table prepared for food.

So:

• ترتب المائدة

often means something like:

• she sets the table
• she arranges the table

It is more natural here than the idea of physically moving a table around.

Yes. In this sentence, و joins two actions done by the same subject:

• تنظف أختي الغرفة
• وترتب المائدة

The subject أختي applies to both verbs, so the meaning is:

• My sister cleans the room and sets the table

Arabic often states the subject once and then continues with more verbs connected by و.

هناك means there.

In this sentence, it most naturally describes the location of the action, especially the second action:

• وترتب المائدة هناك = and she sets the table there

Depending on context, a listener might also understand it more broadly as the location for the whole main scene, but its nearest connection is to the final verb phrase.

Yes, if you learn the fully vocalized forms, these are normally read as:

• تُنَظِّفُ
• تُرَتِّبُ

These come from the verbs:

• نظّف = to clean
• رتّب = to arrange / put in order

In everyday Arabic writing, short vowels and sometimes other pronunciation details are not written, so learners have to know the pattern from vocabulary and context.

Formally, the main verbs are in the present tense. In Arabic, that can cover different meanings depending on context, such as:

• a habitual action: Before the guest comes, my sister cleans the room and sets the table
• a planned / near-future action, if the context is about what will happen soon

So the tense form is present, but the exact time sense depends on the situation.