قبل الغداء تفتح أمي الفرن وتضع فيه الدجاج.

It means before lunch.

Grammatically, قبل means before and is followed by a noun phrase. The noun after it, الغداء, is in the genitive case.

In fully vocalized Arabic, this part would be:

قَبْلَ الغَدَاءِ

So:

• قبل = before
• الغداء = lunch

You can think of قبل الغداء as a time expression answering when?

Yes. Arabic time expressions are fairly flexible.

This sentence begins with قبل الغداء to set the time first:

• قبل الغداء تفتح أمي الفرن...

But you could also say:

• تفتح أمي الفرن قبل الغداء...

Both are correct. Starting with the time phrase gives it a little more prominence, like Before lunch, ...

Because أمي is feminine singular, and in the present tense the 3rd person feminine singular verb usually begins with تـ.

So:

• تفتح = she opens
• تضع = she puts / places

This تـ can also mark you masculine singular in other contexts, so the subject or context tells you which meaning is intended.

Here, because the subject is أمي, the meaning is clearly she.

Because Arabic verbs already contain that information.

In English, you usually need both:

• she opens

But in Arabic, تفتح already tells you the subject is she or you masculine singular, depending on context.

Since the sentence also gives the subject explicitly as أمي, there is no need to add هي.

So Arabic often says:

• تفتح أمي = my mother opens

not:

• هي تفتح أمي — which would be wrong here

The Arabic present tense can do both.

So this sentence could mean:

• a habit/routine: Before lunch, my mother opens the oven and puts the chicken in it
• or a kind of narrative present, describing events as they happen

Without more context, many learners would understand it as a routine or a general description.

أمي means my mother.

It is made from:

• أم = mother
• ـي = my

So:

• أم → mother
• أمي → my mother

In full pronunciation, it is أُمِّي.

الفرن means the oven.

Arabic often uses the definite article الـ when the thing is specific or already understood from context. In a sentence about cooking, the oven is naturally a specific oven.

So:

• فرن = an oven / oven
• الفرن = the oven

فيه means in it.

It is made of:

• في = in
• ـه = it / him

So:

• فيه = in it

Here, it refers back to الفرن.

Arabic very often attaches pronouns directly to prepositions like this:

• فيه = in it
• عليه = on it
• معه = with him / with it

Because it refers to الفرن, and فرن is grammatically masculine.

In Arabic, pronouns must agree with the grammatical gender of the noun they refer to.

So:

• الفرن = masculine
• therefore: فيه = in it

If the noun were feminine, you would use فيها instead.

Both are possible.

• تضع فيه الدجاج
• تضع الدجاج فيه

Both mean she puts the chicken in it.

The version in your sentence places the prepositional phrase فيه earlier, which can sound very natural after a verb like تضع. It highlights the location a bit sooner: puts in it the chicken.

For an English speaker, تضع الدجاج فيه may feel more straightforward, but the original order is perfectly normal Arabic.

Here it most likely means the chicken being prepared for cooking, or simply chicken as food.

The word دجاج can refer to:

• chickens in general
• chicken as food
• a specific chicken, depending on context

Because this sentence is about putting it in the oven, the meaning is clearly food, not live chickens.

The الـ in الدجاج often makes it sound like a specific chicken already known from context:

• the chicken

A fully vocalized version would be:

قَبْلَ الغَدَاءِ تَفْتَحُ أُمِّي الفُرْنَ وَتَضَعُ فِيهِ الدَّجَاجَ

Some useful points:

• قَبْلَ has fatḥa
• الغَدَاءِ is genitive after قبل
• تَفْتَحُ and تَضَعُ are present-tense verbs
• الفُرْنَ is the direct object of تفتح
• فِيهِ = in it
• الدَّجَاجَ is the direct object of تضع

In normal Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually omitted, so learners generally see:

قبل الغداء تفتح أمي الفرن وتضع فيه الدجاج.