قبل الغداء تضع امي الطماطم مع اللحم في القدر.

Because Arabic often puts a time expression first to set the scene: قبل الغداء = before lunch.

So the sentence structure is roughly:

time expression + verb + subject + object + other phrases

Here that gives:

قبل الغداء — before lunch
تضع — puts
أمي — my mother
الطماطم — the tomatoes
مع اللحم — with the meat
في القدر — in the pot

You could also say أمي تضع الطماطم... and that would still be correct. Starting with قبل الغداء just gives the time information first.

Because the subject is أمي (my mother), which is feminine singular.

The verb تضع is the 3rd person feminine singular form of وضع (to put).

So:

• يضع = he puts
• تضع = she puts

A useful thing to know: in unvocalized Arabic, تضع can also look like you put (masculine singular), but here the following subject أمي makes it clear that it means she puts.

أمي means my mother.

It is made from:

• أم = mother
• ـي = my

So Arabic usually attaches the possessive my directly to the noun as a suffix.

That is why it is one word, not two.

Also, the standard spelling is أمي with a hamza at the beginning. You may sometimes see امي in less careful writing, but أمي is the standard form.

It is the imperfect form in Arabic. In a sentence like this, it most naturally means a present habitual action, so puts is a good translation.

Depending on context, the Arabic imperfect can also express:

• a present action: is putting
• a habitual action: puts
• a future action: sometimes, especially with future markers

Here, with قبل الغداء and no extra markers, the most natural meaning is something like Before lunch, my mother puts the tomatoes with the meat in the pot.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, the equivalent of the.

In this sentence:

• الغداء = the lunch / lunch
• الطماطم = the tomatoes
• اللحم = the meat
• القدر = the pot

A very important point: Arabic often uses the definite article in places where English may not. For example:

• قبل الغداء literally looks like before the lunch
• but in natural English we usually just say before lunch

So the Arabic definite article does not always translate word-for-word into English.

This is because of sun letters and moon letters.

• In الطماطم, the first letter after الـ is ط, which is a sun letter
• In القدر, the first letter after الـ is ق, which is a moon letter

With sun letters, the l sound of الـ is not pronounced separately; instead, the next consonant is doubled.

So:

• الطماطم is pronounced roughly aṭ-ṭamāṭim
• اللحم is pronounced roughly al-laḥm (the l is doubled)
• القدر is pronounced al-qidr, with the l sound clearly heard

This is only a pronunciation issue; the spelling still uses الـ.

In normal usage, طماطم usually refers to tomatoes as a food item or collective quantity.

So here الطماطم is best understood as the tomatoes or just tomatoes in context.

Food words in Arabic are often used this way, where the exact English singular/plural pattern does not match perfectly.

If you want to emphasize one tomato, speakers often use an expression like حبة طماطم (one tomato, literally a piece/grain of tomato).

They introduce prepositional phrases:

• مع اللحم = with the meat
• في القدر = in the pot

So they tell you:

• what the tomatoes are combined with: the meat
• where the action happens: in the pot

This is very typical Arabic word order: after the main object, Arabic often adds phrases showing accompaniment, place, time, and so on.

Here القدر means the pot, specifically a cooking pot.

In this sentence it is pronounced roughly al-qidr.

This is useful because the same Arabic spelling قدر can represent different words when short vowels are not written, for example:

• قِدر = pot
• قَدَر = fate / destiny
• قَدْر = amount / value

So context tells you which meaning is intended. Since the sentence is about food and cooking, the pot is the correct reading here.

In fully written-out MSA with vowel marks, the sentence could appear as:

قَبْلَ الغَداءِ تَضَعُ أُمِّي الطَّمَاطِمَ مَعَ اللَّحْمِ فِي القِدْرِ.

But in normal Arabic writing, short vowels and most case endings are usually not written.

So learners often see the simpler form:

قبل الغداء تضع أمي الطماطم مع اللحم في القدر

That is completely normal.

The fully vocalized version helps show grammar:

• قَبْلَ — accusative adverbial form
• الغَداءِ — genitive after قبل in this construction
• تَضَعُ — indicative verb
• الطَّمَاطِمَ — direct object
• اللَّحْمِ — genitive in the phrase with مع
• القِدْرِ — genitive after في

In everyday reading, native speakers usually rely on context rather than written endings.