قالت صديقتي إنها تحب اللحم مع البطاطا، لكنها تفضل الخضار مع قليل من الزيت.

قالت means she said. It is feminine because صديقتي means my female friend, so the verb agrees with a feminine singular subject.

Arabic often uses verb + subject order, so قالت صديقتي is very natural. You could also say صديقتي قالت, but the sentence here uses the common verb-first pattern.

صديقتي means my female friend.

It breaks down like this:

• صديقة = female friend
• ـي = my

So صديقة + ي becomes صديقتي.

This is also a good reminder that Arabic usually marks gender more clearly than English. English friend can be male or female, but Arabic distinguishes:

• صديق = male friend
• صديقة = female friend

Because the final ة in صديقة is taa marbuuTa. When the word stands alone, it is usually pronounced like -a / -ah. But when you add a suffix, that ة becomes a pronounced t.

So: