الضيفة تقول إن الطعام لذيذ، ثم تشرب قهوة معنا.

الضيفة means the female guest. The ending ـة (called tāʾ marbūṭa) is a very common marker of feminine nouns in Arabic.

• ضيف = guest / male guest
• ضيفة = female guest

Because the sentence is talking about a woman, the feminine form is used.

In the present tense, Arabic verbs change form depending on the subject. تقول is the form for she says (and in some contexts also you say for a masculine singular subject, but the context here clearly makes it she says).

So:

• تقول = she says
• The subject is الضيفة, which is feminine singular
• Therefore the verb must match that subject

This is an example of subject-verb agreement.

Both are possible in Arabic, but they feel slightly different in style.

• الضيفة تقول = The guest says...
  This is a nominal sentence structure, starting with the noun. It can feel a bit more topic-focused, like As for the guest, she says...

• تقول الضيفة = The guest says...
  This is a more straightforward verbal sentence, starting with the verb.

In simple reading materials, starting with the noun is often clearer for learners.

إن introduces a clause meaning that...

So:

• تقول إن الطعام لذيذ
• literally: She says that the food is delicious

This is a very common way to report speech or thoughts in Arabic.

A learner should also know that إن affects grammar: the noun after it is technically in the accusative case, although in normal unvocalized writing you usually do not see that clearly.

This is a very common question.

In many beginner contexts:

• إن often introduces a full statement, especially after saying/reporting
• أن is often used in other kinds of subordinate clauses, especially after verbs like I want, I like, I can, etc.

For example:

• قال إن الجو جميل = He said that the weather is nice
• أريد أن أذهب = I want to go

In real Arabic, the distinction can get more detailed, but for this sentence, the important point is that إن introduces the reported statement: that the food is delicious.

الطعام means the food.

The prefix الـ is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the in English.

So:

• طعام = food
• الطعام = the food

In this sentence, it refers to a specific meal or food that everyone knows about, so the definite form makes sense.

Because it describes الطعام, and طعام is a masculine noun.

So the adjective or predicate must match:

• الطعام لذيذ = The food is delicious

If the noun were feminine, the adjective would usually be feminine too. For example:

• الوجبة لذيذة = The meal is delicious

Here:

• الطعام = masculine
• therefore لذيذ = masculine

It is an adjective in meaning, but in this sentence it functions as the predicate of the sentence.

In الطعام لذيذ:

• الطعام = the subject
• لذيذ = delicious, the predicate

Arabic often says things like the food delicious without needing a separate word for is in the present tense.

So الطعام لذيذ literally looks like:

• the food delicious

but it means:

• The food is delicious

In Arabic, present-tense equational sentences usually do not use a separate word for is / am / are.

So:

• الطعام لذيذ = The food is delicious
• أنا طالب = I am a student
• هي سعيدة = She is happy

Arabic simply leaves out the present-tense to be.

If you wanted past or future, then Arabic would use other forms, such as كان.

ثم means then and shows sequence, usually with a sense of after that.

So:

• ثم تشرب قهوة معنا = Then she drinks coffee with us

Compare:

• و = and
• ثم = then / and then

Using ثم makes the order clearer:

1. she says the food is delicious
2. then she drinks coffee with us

It suggests progression from one action to the next.

Arabic verbs already contain subject information, so a separate pronoun is often unnecessary.

• تشرب = she drinks

Since the subject is already known from الضيفة, Arabic does not need to repeat هي.

You could say ثم هي تشرب قهوة معنا, but that would usually sound more emphatic or stylistically marked. In normal Arabic, the verb alone is enough.

قهوة here means coffee in a general sense, so it does not need to be definite.

• قهوة = coffee / some coffee / a coffee
• القهوة = the coffee

In many contexts, Arabic uses an indefinite noun for drinks or food when speaking generally:

• أشرب ماءً = I drink water
• تشرب قهوة = She drinks coffee

So the sentence is not talking about a specific already-identified coffee, but simply the drink itself.

In fully vocalized Arabic, an indefinite noun like قهوة would often show case ending and tanwīn, for example قهوةً in the accusative.

But in normal everyday Arabic writing, short vowels and tanwīn are usually omitted.

So learners often see:

• قهوة

instead of the fully marked form:

• قهوةً

This is completely normal in standard written Arabic.

معنا means with us.

It is made of:

• مع = with
• نا = us / our (attached pronoun)

So:

• معي = with me
• معك = with you
• معنا = with us

Arabic often attaches pronouns directly to prepositions like this.

The present tense in Arabic can cover several meanings depending on context, including:

• habitual action
• present-time action
• simple narrative present

In this sentence, تقول and تشرب could be understood as part of a simple description of what happens:

• The guest says the food is delicious, then drinks coffee with us.

So it may describe a typical sequence or a current scene, depending on context. Arabic present tense is flexible in this way.

A natural pronunciation is roughly:

aḍ-ḍayfatu taqūlu inna ṭ-ṭaʿāma ladhīdh, thumma tashrabu qahwatan maʿanā

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• الضيفة: the ض is a deep emphatic consonant
• تقول: long ū sound
• إن: short i
• الطعام: long ā in the middle
• ثم: th as in think
• تشرب: starts with ta-
• قهوة: the ه is pronounced; the word is often approximated as qahwa
• معنا: maʿanā, with the ʿayn sound in the middle

In ordinary unvocalized text, these details are not written, so learners have to learn them from vocabulary and grammar.

A simple breakdown is:

• الضيفة = the subject of تقول
• تقول = present-tense verb, she says
• إن = particle meaning that
• الطعام = subject of the clause after إن (technically the noun governed by إن)
• لذيذ = predicate, delicious
• ثم = then
• تشرب = present-tense verb, she drinks
• قهوة = direct object, coffee
• معنا = prepositional phrase, with us

So the sentence is built from two linked actions:

1. The guest says that the food is delicious
2. Then she drinks coffee with us