ماذا عنك؟ اشتقت إليك منذ وقت طويل.

Literally, it is:

• ماذا = what
• عن = about
• ـك = you

So the literal meaning is What about you?

Yes, it is also a very common idiomatic way to say What about you? in Arabic. A shorter alternative you may also hear is وأنت؟ = And you?

In Arabic, pronouns are often attached directly to prepositions.

So:

• عن + ك → عنك = about you
• إلى + ك → إليك = to you

This is completely normal Arabic grammar. English uses separate words, but Arabic often combines them into one written word.

A few similar examples:

• عني = about me
• عنه = about him
• إليها = to her

This is a very common question.

اشتقت is indeed a past-tense form: I missed / I longed for. But in Arabic, past tense is often used for feelings or states that began in the past and are still true now.

So اشتقت إليك can naturally mean:

• I missed you
• I’ve missed you
• sometimes even I miss you, depending on context

It often carries the sense that the feeling has built up and is emotionally real now.

By contrast:

• أشتاق إليك = I miss you / I long for you

This is more directly present in meaning, but اشتقت إليك is extremely natural when expressing emotion warmly.

The dictionary form is اشتاق.

So:

• اشتاق = to long for / to miss
• اشتقت = I longed for / I missed

The root is ش و ق, which is connected with longing, desire, and yearning.

Because the verb اشتاق normally takes the preposition إلى in standard Arabic.

So in MSA, the standard pattern is:

• اشتقتُ إليك = I missed you
• literally: I longed to/for you

Using a direct object pronoun, like اشتقتك, is not standard MSA, though forms like that may appear in some dialects.

So if you are learning Modern Standard Arabic, اشتقت إليك is the form to learn.

Literally, it means something like since a long time or since a long while ago.

But in natural English, you would usually translate it more idiomatically as:

• for a long time
• in a long time
• it’s been a long time

In this sentence, منذ marks a stretch of time that started in the past and continues up to now.

So اشتقت إليك منذ وقت طويل means that the speaker has been missing the person for a long time.

Because here Arabic wants the meaning a long time, not the long time.

So:

• وقت طويل = a long time
• الوقت الطويل = the long time or that long time, which sounds much less natural here

This is similar to English: we say for a long time, not for the long time.

So منذ وقت طويل is the normal expression.

Yes. منذ زمن طويل is also very common and often sounds very natural.

Both are correct:

• منذ وقت طويل
• منذ زمن طويل

Very roughly:

• وقت often feels like time as a period or moment
• زمن often feels like time as a span or era

But in expressions like this, both can work well. Many learners hear منذ زمن طويل very often.

Yes, the attached pronoun changes, although in normal unvowelled writing the masculine and feminine singular often look the same.

For one man:

• ماذا عنكَ؟ اشتقتُ إليكَ

For one woman:

• ماذا عنكِ؟ اشتقتُ إليكِ

Without short vowels, both are usually written:

• ماذا عنك؟ اشتقت إليك

So the exact pronunciation depends on context.

Also, note that اشتقتُ stays the same whether the speaker is male or female. In the first-person singular past tense, Arabic does not distinguish gender.

You would change the attached pronouns:

• to two people: ماذا عنكما؟ اشتقت إليكما
• to a group of men or a mixed group: ماذا عنكم؟ اشتقت إليكم
• to a group of women: ماذا عنكنّ؟ اشتقت إليكنّ

So the verb اشتقت still stays the same, but the pronoun on عن and إلى changes.

A careful MSA pronunciation is:

ماذا عنكَ؟ اشتقتُ إليكَ منذُ وقتٍ طويلٍ.

A simple transliteration:

mādhā ʿanka? ishtaqtu ilayka mundhu waqtin ṭawīlin.

A few notes:

• ع in عنك is the letter ʿayn, which has no exact English equivalent
• ذ in ماذا sounds like th in this
• اشتقت begins with ish-
• منذ is pronounced mundhu

In everyday reading and speech, people often do not pronounce all the full case endings.

Yes, but with an important detail: it is natural as Modern Standard Arabic, which can sound a bit formal or literary in actual conversation.

• ماذا عنك؟ is very common and widely understandable
• اشتقت إليك منذ وقت طويل is correct and warm, but it has a somewhat polished, MSA tone

In real daily speech, most native speakers would usually switch to their local dialect instead of saying the whole sentence exactly this way.

So the sentence is definitely correct and useful, especially for reading, writing, subtitles, or formal spoken Arabic.