قبل الغداء تضع امي الخبز في الفرن، ثم تضعه على المائدة.

Before lunch, my mother puts the bread in the oven, then she puts it on the table.

Breakdown of قبل الغداء تضع امي الخبز في الفرن، ثم تضعه على المائدة.

• في: in
• ي: my
• قبل: before
• الغداء: lunch

Questions & Answers about قبل الغداء تضع امي الخبز في الفرن، ثم تضعه على المائدة.

Why does the sentence begin with قبل الغداء?

قبل الغداء means before lunch. It is a time expression, and Arabic very often puts time expressions at the beginning of the sentence.

So the structure is:

قبل الغداء = before lunch
تضع أمي الخبز... = my mother puts the bread...

Literally, it is something like:

Before lunch, my mother puts the bread...

Why is it تضع أمي instead of أمي تضع?

Because in Modern Standard Arabic, a verb-first sentence is very common.

So:

• تضع أمي الخبز = literally puts my mother the bread
• natural English order: my mother puts the bread

This is called VSO order: verb–subject–object.

You can also say:

أمي تضع الخبز...

That is also correct, but it gives a slightly different feel, with more emphasis on my mother.

Why is the verb تضع?

تضع is the imperfect (non-past) form of the verb وضع, meaning to put.

Here it is third person feminine singular, because the subject is أمي = my mother, and mother is feminine.

So: