هل أنت متفرغ؟

A careful MSA pronunciation is:

hal anta mutafarrigh?

A more fully vocalized version is:

هَلْ أَنْتَ مُتَفَرِّغٌ؟

A few pronunciation notes:

• هل = hal
• أنت = anta when speaking to one male
• متفرغ = mutafarrigh
• The غ sound is a throaty sound that does not exist in English. It is often compared loosely to a French or German r, but farther back in the throat.
• The doubled consonant in متفرِّغ means the r sound is held slightly longer.

If speaking to a woman, you would say hal anti mutafarrigha? with أنتِ متفرغة.

هل is a question particle. It turns a statement into a yes/no question.

So:

• أنت متفرغ = You are available / free
• هل أنت متفرغ؟ = Are you available / free?

It does not mean do, does, or are by itself exactly; it simply marks the sentence as a yes/no question.

In Arabic, the verb to be is usually not stated in the present tense.

So where English says:

• You are available

Arabic simply says:

• أنت متفرغ

Literally, that is more like:

• You available

This is completely normal in Arabic. The present-tense to be is understood.

If you wanted past or future, Arabic would use other forms, such as:

• كنت متفرغًا = You were available
• سأكون متفرغًا = I will be available

أنت means you.

In this sentence, it is included because this is a nominal sentence, not a verb sentence. You need something to serve as the subject, and أنت is that subject.

So:

• أنت متفرغ = You are available

You generally would not just say هل متفرغ؟ in normal MSA as a complete sentence. The pronoun helps make the sentence grammatical and clear.

متفرغ usually means free, available, not busy, or at leisure, depending on context.

It often has the sense of being free to do something, not free of charge.

For example:

• هل أنت متفرغ الآن؟ = Are you free now?
• أنا متفرغ هذا المساء = I’m available this evening

It can also sometimes carry the sense of being devoted exclusively to something in other contexts, but in a simple question like this, learners usually understand it as available / free.

Yes. It agrees with the person you are talking about.

Common forms are:

• متفرغ = masculine singular
• متفرغة = feminine singular
• متفرغان = masculine dual
• متفرغتان = feminine dual
• متفرغون / متفرغين = masculine plural
• متفرغات = feminine plural

So you would say:

• هل أنتَ متفرغ؟ = to one male
• هل أنتِ متفرغة؟ = to one female
• هل أنتم متفرغون؟ = to a group of males or mixed group
• هل أنتن متفرغات؟ = to a group of females

Here, متفرغ is the predicate of a nominal sentence.

The structure is:

• هل = question particle
• أنت = subject
• متفرغ = predicate describing the subject

So grammatically, it works like an adjective-like predicate: you are available.

In fully vocalized formal Arabic, it would usually be:

• هَلْ أَنْتَ مُتَفَرِّغٌ؟

The final -un ending is the nominative ending for an indefinite predicate in full case-marked Arabic, though in normal writing these endings are usually omitted.

It is related to a verb. متفرغ is an active participle form.

It comes from the verb تفرغ meaning something like to become free, to devote oneself fully, or to make oneself available, depending on context.

The root is:

• ف ر غ

This root is connected with the idea of being empty or free from occupation.

So متفرغ literally has the sense of one who is free / available / unoccupied.

No, not in this sentence.

متفرغ means free/available in terms of time or attention, not free of charge.

If you want free in the sense of costing nothing, Arabic usually uses expressions like:

• مجاني = free, complimentary
• مجانًا = for free

So:

• هل أنت متفرغ؟ = Are you free / available?
• not Are you free of charge?

This is a good, natural Modern Standard Arabic sentence.

In everyday spoken dialects, people often use other expressions, such as forms equivalent to:

• Are you free?
• Do you have time?
• Are you busy?

For example, many dialects use words like فاضي or expressions with عندك وقت.

But for MSA, هل أنت متفرغ؟ is perfectly fine and useful.

Yes, sometimes, but هل is the clearest standard way to form a yes/no question in MSA.

Other possibilities include:

• أأنت متفرغ؟ — a more formal style, using a question hamza
• أنت متفرغ؟ — possible in speech or informal writing if the question is understood from intonation/context

For learners of MSA, هل أنت متفرغ؟ is the safest and most standard form.

Some simple answers are:

• نعم، أنا متفرغ. = Yes, I’m available.
• لا، لست متفرغًا. = No, I’m not available. (male speaker)
• لا، لست متفرغة. = No, I’m not available. (female speaker)

You could also add time expressions:

• نعم، أنا متفرغ الآن. = Yes, I’m free now.
• لا، أنا مشغول الآن. = No, I’m busy now.

The opposite of متفرغ in this context is often مشغول = busy.