مهما صنفت الصور، بلاقي نسخة مكررة.

Here مهما means no matter how, however, or more generally regardless of how.

In this sentence, it introduces a clause like:

• مهما صنفت الصور = no matter how I sort/classify the photos

So it sets up a situation, and the second part gives the result:

• بلاقي نسخة مكررة = I find a duplicate copy

This is very common in Arabic.

Even though صنفت is formally a past-tense verb, after words like مهما, Arabic often uses the past to express a general, repeated, or hypothetical idea. So:

• مهما صنفت الصور does not have to mean only no matter how I sorted the photos once
• it can naturally mean no matter how I sort the photos or however I try sorting the photos

Then the second clause uses the present:

• بلاقي = I find / I keep finding

So the sentence mixes forms in a way that sounds normal in Arabic, even if English would often prefer present in both parts.

صنفت comes from صنّف, which means:

• to classify
• to categorize
• to sort into groups

So it is a bit more specific than just arrange or put in order.

With الصور, it suggests something like:

• sorting photos into categories
• organizing them by type, date, album, etc.

If you wanted a more general idea of arranging or tidying, Arabic might use another verb in other contexts. But صنّف works very well for classify/sort.

Also, the ending -ت in صنفت shows I in the past:

• صنفت = I classified / I sorted

بلاقي means I find or I keep finding.

It comes from the Egyptian Arabic verb لاقى / لِقي = to find.

The بـ at the beginning is very important in Egyptian Arabic. It usually marks the normal present or habitual tense:

• بلاقي = I find
• I keep finding
• I usually find

So in this sentence, بلاقي gives the ongoing or repeated result:

• No matter how I sort the photos, I keep finding a duplicate.

A useful pronunciation note: in Egyptian Arabic, the ق in بلاقي is usually pronounced as a glottal stop, so it sounds roughly like bala’i.

Because Arabic usually does not need subject pronouns when the verb already shows who the subject is.

For example:

• صنفت already means I sorted
• بلاقي already means I find

So أنا is optional. You could add it for emphasis, but you do not need it.

Compare:

• مهما صنفت الصور، بلاقي نسخة مكررة.
• مهما أنا صنفت الصور، أنا بلاقي نسخة مكررة. → possible only with strong emphasis, but normally unnecessary and less natural

This is called a pro-drop feature: the subject can be omitted because the verb carries the information.

Literally, نسخة مكررة means a repeated copy.

In natural English, that is usually:

• a duplicate
• a duplicate copy

It is not really redundant in Arabic.

• نسخة by itself = copy / version
• مكررة adds the meaning duplicated / repeated

So نسخة مكررة clearly means this is an extra copy that appears again, not just any copy.

This is especially natural when talking about:

• files
• photos
• documents
• computer folders

Because it describes نسخة, and نسخة is a feminine noun.

In Arabic, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe. So:

• نسخة = feminine singular
• مكررة = feminine singular adjective

If the noun were masculine, you would use مكرر instead.

So the agreement here is completely regular:

• نسخة مكررة = feminine noun + feminine adjective

Because of sun-letter assimilation.

The word is written:

• الصور

But ص is a sun letter, so the ل in الـ is not clearly pronounced. Instead, the following consonant is doubled in speech.

So it is pronounced roughly:

• eṣ-ṣowar

not:

• al-sowar

This happens in many Arabic words with الـ before sun letters.

So:

• spelling: الصور
• pronunciation: eṣ-ṣowar

The sentence has two parts:

1. مهما صنفت الصور

   • concessive/conditional idea
   • no matter how I sort the photos

2. بلاقي نسخة مكررة

   • result/main statement
   • I find a duplicate

So the pattern is basically:

• مهما + verb + object, result clause

You can think of it as:

• No matter what I do with X, Y keeps happening.

That is a very useful pattern in Arabic.

A rough pronunciation would be:

mahma ṣannaft eṣ-ṣowar, bala’i noskha mokarrara

A few notes:

• مهما → mahma
• صنفت → roughly ṣannaft
• الصور → eṣ-ṣowar
• بلاقي → bala’i
• نسخة → noskha
• مكررة → mokarrara

You do not need to copy this perfectly, but it can help you hear how the sentence flows in Egyptian Arabic.