كان عندي مشوار بعد الشغل.

كان puts the idea into the past.

• عندي مشوار بعد الشغل = I have an errand / I’ve got somewhere to go after work
• كان عندي مشوار بعد الشغل = I had an errand / I had somewhere to go after work

In this kind of sentence, كان is not best understood as a separate English word like was. It is more natural to think of it as the past marker for the whole sentence.

The I is inside عندي.

• عند = at / with
• -ي = my / me

So عندي literally means something like at me or with me, but in natural English it often means I have.

That is why كان عندي مشوار literally looks like there was, at me, an errand, but naturally means I had an errand.

Egyptian Arabic usually expresses possession with a structure like at me / with me, not with a direct verb like English have.

So:

• عندي عربية = I have a car
• عندي شغل = I have work
• عندي مشوار = I have an errand / I’ve got somewhere to go

This is very common and very natural in Egyptian Arabic.

مشوار is a very common Egyptian word. It can mean:

• an errand
• a trip out
• a place you need to go
• something you need to do outside the house or outside your current place

So in this sentence, it does not necessarily mean a long journey. It often means something like:

• an errand
• a quick outing
• somewhere I had to go
• something I had to take care of

That is why this sentence can sound a little broader than just errand.

Usually it means you had something to do / somewhere to go, not necessarily that you actually did it.

So the sentence mainly tells us about an obligation, plan, or scheduled outing.

If you want to make it clear that you actually went, you would usually use another verb, for example:

• رحت مشوار = I went out on an errand
• خلصت المشوار = I finished the errand

So كان عندي مشوار is often closer to I had plans or I had an errand to run than I went.

Because the speaker is introducing it as an errand, not the specific errand.

• كان عندي مشوار = I had an errand / something to do
• كان عندي المشوار would sound much more specific, like I had the errand or I had that particular trip/task we already know about

In normal conversation, مشوار without ال is the natural choice here.

In Egyptian Arabic, بعد الشغل is the natural way to say after work.

Here الشغل means work in a general everyday sense: your job, work time, or the workday. Even though English often says just after work without the, Arabic commonly uses the definite form here.

So:

• بعد الشغل = after work

This is idiomatic and very common.

Yes, الشغل is a very common colloquial Egyptian word.

It can mean:

• work
• job
• workplace
• work duties
• the workday

In this sentence, بعد الشغل most naturally means after work.

A more formal word is العمل, but in everyday Egyptian speech, الشغل is much more natural.

This word order is very normal in Egyptian Arabic:

1. كان = past marker
2. عندي = the possession phrase, I had
3. مشوار = what was possessed, an errand
4. بعد الشغل = time phrase, after work

So the structure is basically:

had + at me + errand + after work

It sounds strange if you translate word for word into English, but in Egyptian Arabic this is a very ordinary sentence pattern.

A natural pronunciation would be something like:

kān ʿandī mashwār baʿd ish-shughl

A few useful notes:

• كان = kān
• عندي = ʿandī
• مشوار = mashwār
• بعد = baʿd
• الشغل is written with ال, but because ش is a sun letter, it is pronounced ish-shughl, not al-shughl

Also, the ع sound in عندي and بعد does not exist in English, so learners often need extra practice with it.

The difference is mainly time:

• عندي مشوار = I have an errand / I’ve got somewhere to go
• كان عندي مشوار = I had an errand / I had somewhere to go

So if you are talking about your current plans, use عندي.
If you are talking about a past situation, use كان عندي.

Yes. That is a very natural interpretation.

Because مشوار is broad, the sentence can suggest:

• I had an errand after work
• I had somewhere to go after work
• I had something to do after work
• I had plans after work

The exact nuance depends on context.

A natural negated version is:

ما كانش عندي مشوار بعد الشغل

This means:

I didn’t have an errand after work
or
I didn’t have anywhere to go after work

In Egyptian Arabic, كان is negated with ما ... ش:

• كان → ما كانش

So the negation wraps around كان, because كان is the past marker carrying the sentence.

Yes. مشوار is general and flexible, but if you want to be more specific, you can choose another noun:

• كان عندي معاد بعد الشغل = I had an appointment after work
• كان عندي اجتماع بعد الشغل = I had a meeting after work
• كان عندي خروجة بعد الشغل = I had an outing after work

So مشوار works well when you want to keep it general: somewhere to go / something to do.