Standard Arabic

No. MSA is the formal written and broadcast register, used for newspapers, official speech, and Quranic recitation. The everyday spoken languages are regional dialects (Egyptian, Levantine, Moroccan, Iraqi, Gulf, Yemeni, etc.) which differ from MSA and from each other in vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar enough to challenge mutual intelligibility.

Most Arabic words are built from three-consonant roots (k-t-b: 'writing') slotted into templated patterns. Kataba is 'he wrote', kitāb is 'book', kātib is 'writer', maktab is 'office', maktūb is 'written'. Once you learn the patterns, new vocabulary becomes navigable rather than a list to memorise.

Yes, two: masculine and feminine. Verbs, adjectives, and pronouns all agree. Plurals also have gender, plus a third 'broken plural' form for many nouns where the internal vowel pattern changes (kitāb → kutub, 'books'). The dual number — a special form for exactly two — is preserved in MSA but mostly lost in spoken dialects.

Arabic is written right-to-left in a cursive script where most letters connect to their neighbours and change shape depending on position (initial, medial, final, isolated). It's an abjad: short vowels are usually omitted in standard text, written only as diacritics in religious texts, dictionaries, and beginner materials.

Depends on your goal. MSA opens reading, news, and pan-Arab formal communication, but you won't sound natural ordering coffee anywhere. A dialect (Egyptian and Levantine being the most widely understood) gives you everyday spoken life in a specific region. Many learners do MSA for reading and pair it with one dialect.