ماذا عنك؟

It breaks down like this:

• ماذا = what
• عن = about / concerning
• ـك = you as an attached pronoun

So the whole phrase is literally What about you?

Because after a preposition in Arabic, pronouns are usually attached to that preposition.

So:

• عن = about
• عنك = about you
• عني = about me
• عنه = about him

This is very normal Arabic structure. English uses a separate pronoun, but Arabic often uses a suffix.

No explicit verb is needed here. This is a complete and natural expression in Arabic.

It is similar to English What about you?, which also has no main verb. So Arabic is not leaving something out in a strange way; it is just using a short idiomatic question.

In this expression, ماذا عن...؟ is the standard pattern.

So you say:

• ماذا عنك؟
• ماذا عنهم؟
• ماذا عن الدراسة؟

But ما عنك؟ would not sound natural here in standard Arabic.

A good way to learn it is as one chunk:

• ماذا عن + noun/pronoun

Yes. The ـك part changes because it is the pronoun attached to عن.

Common forms:

• ماذا عنكَ؟ = to one male
• ماذا عنكِ؟ = to one female
• ماذا عنكما؟ = to two people
• ماذا عنكم؟ = to a group of males or a mixed group
• ماذا عنكنَّ؟ = to a group of females

In normal unvowelled writing, both singular forms are usually written the same way: عنك.

It is perfectly correct in Modern Standard Arabic, and it is very common.

In everyday speech, many speakers also use it, but spoken dialects may prefer shorter or more colloquial alternatives such as وأنت؟ depending on the situation.

So for MSA, ماذا عنك؟ is a very useful phrase to know.

A common pronunciation guide is:

• mādhā ʿanka? for a male
• mādhā ʿanki? for a female

A few sound notes:

• ذ sounds like the th in this
• ع has no exact English equivalent; it is a deep throat sound
• عنك is pronounced as one unit, because the pronoun is attached

The و means and.

So:

• ماذا عنك؟ = What about you?
• وماذا عنك؟ = And what about you?

Arabic often uses و to connect the sentence to what came before. Both are correct, and the version with و is especially common in conversation.

Yes. This is a general pattern in Arabic, not only a phrase for you.

Examples:

• ماذا عن العمل؟ = What about work?
• ماذا عن الفكرة؟ = What about the idea?
• ماذا عنهم؟ = What about them?

So it is helpful to learn ماذا عن...؟ as a reusable structure.