انا مابحبش الضلمة.

Yes, it can be omitted.

In Egyptian Arabic, the verb already tells you the subject, so مابحبش الضلمة already means I don’t like the dark. Adding انا makes the subject explicit. It can add a little emphasis, contrast, or clarity, but it is not required.

So both of these are natural:

• انا مابحبش الضلمة
• مابحبش الضلمة

This is the very common Egyptian Arabic negation pattern ما ... ش around the verb.

So:

• بحب = I like / I love
• ما بحبش or مابحبش = I don’t like / I don’t love

You can think of it as a negation frame wrapping around the verb:

• ما
  • verb + ش

This is one of the most important patterns in Egyptian Arabic.

In Egyptian Arabic, بـ is the usual marker for the present tense in many everyday sentences.

So:

• بحب = I like / I love
• literally, it is the normal Egyptian present form of the verb

With verbs of feeling or preference like حب (to like/love), this is just the normal way to say I like.

Because حب in Egyptian can cover both like and love, depending on context.

For example:

• بحب القهوة = I like coffee
• بحبك = I love you

With الضلمة, English normally uses like, so I don’t like the dark sounds natural. Translating it as I don’t love the dark would sound odd in English, even though the Arabic verb is the same.

Here الضلمة means something like the dark or darkness as a general thing.

In Arabic, abstract or general ideas are often expressed with the definite article. So using الـ here is very natural.

• الضلمة = the dark / darkness

Without الـ, the word would feel less natural in this sentence, or it could sound more like a darkness or a less fixed expression depending on context.

Because ض is a sun letter.

That means the ل of الـ is not pronounced separately; instead, the following consonant is doubled. So الضلمة is pronounced roughly:

eḍ-ḍalma
or sometimes written in learner-friendly ways as something like ed-dalma with an emphatic d

So although it is written الضلمة, you do not say a clear l sound there.

These two sounds are often tricky for English speakers.

ح in بحب:

• This is not the ordinary English h
• It is stronger and deeper in the throat
• A good first approximation is a strong, breathy h, but produced farther back

ض in الضلمة:

• This is an emphatic d sound
• It sounds heavier and darker than English d
• Don’t pronounce it like z

You do not need perfect pronunciation right away, but it helps to notice that both sounds are different from their closest English equivalents.

Yes, this is clearly Egyptian Arabic.

A Standard Arabic equivalent would be:

أنا لا أحبّ الظلام

Some important differences:

• Egyptian uses ما...ش for negation: مابحبش
• Standard Arabic uses لا with the present: لا أحبّ
• Egyptian says الضلمة
• Standard Arabic more commonly says الظلام

So this sentence is a good example of everyday spoken Egyptian, not formal Arabic.

Yes.

Colloquial Arabic spelling is less standardized than formal Arabic, so both are common in informal writing:

• مابحبش
• ما بحبش

They represent the same spoken form. You will see both in messages, subtitles, and social media.

Because with ordinary verbs in Egyptian Arabic, the normal negation pattern is ما...ش.

So for a beginner, the natural form is:

• مابحبش الضلمة

rather than:

• مش بحب الضلمة

A simple rule that works well is:

• use ما...ش to negate verbs
• use مش very often with non-verbal sentences, adjectives, and nouns

That rule is not the whole story of the language, but it is a very good beginner rule.

Yes, it is very normal.

The sentence is:

• انا = subject
• مابحبش = verb
• الضلمة = object

So the order is basically subject + verb + object, which is very common in Egyptian Arabic.

You can also drop the subject pronoun and simply say:

• مابحبش الضلمة

If you move الضلمة to the front, that usually adds emphasis and often requires a pronoun later in the sentence, for example:

• الضلمة مابحبهاش = The dark, I don’t like it

That is more advanced, but it shows that the original sentence has a very normal, straightforward word order.