امتحان امبارح كان صعب، والدرس كان صعب.

A natural Egyptian Arabic pronunciation is:

emteḥān embāreḥ kān saʿb, w-ed-dars kān saʿb

A rough English-friendly guide:

• emteḥān = em-te-HAAN
• embāreḥ = em-BAA-rekh / em-BAA-re7
• kān = kaan
• saʿb = sa‘b
• w-ed-dars = wed-DARS
• kān saʿb = kaan sa‘b

A few notes:

• ḥ in امتحان is a stronger h sound than English h.
• ʿ in صعب is the Arabic letter ع, a throat sound that English does not have.
• الدرس is often pronounced ed-dars, because ال changes its pronunciation before d.

امبارح means yesterday in Egyptian Arabic.

In this sentence, it comes right after امتحان, so امتحان امبارح means yesterday’s exam or the exam yesterday, depending on context.

This is very common in Egyptian Arabic: instead of using a possessive structure like the exam of yesterday, speakers often simply place امبارح after the noun.

كان means was.

So:

• كان صعب = was hard

In Arabic, the verb to be is usually omitted in the present tense, but it appears in the past tense.

For example:

• الدرس صعب = The lesson is hard
• الدرس كان صعب = The lesson was hard

So in your sentence, كان is there because the speaker is talking about the past.

That is true for the present tense, but not for the past.

In Egyptian Arabic:

• Present: no separate word for is
  • الدرس صعب = The lesson is hard
• Past: you use كان
  • الدرس كان صعب = The lesson was hard

So كان is not optional here if you want the past meaning.

This is a great question, because definiteness in Arabic can feel different from English.

• امتحان without ال is formally an exam
• الدرس with ال is the lesson

But in real Egyptian Arabic, a bare noun like امتحان can sometimes still sound fairly specific from context, especially in everyday speech.

So امتحان امبارح can be understood as:

• the exam yesterday
• yesterday’s exam

Even though it does not have ال, the meaning may still be specific because the situation makes it clear which exam is being talked about.

If you wanted to make it clearly definite, you could also hear:

• الامتحان امبارح كان صعب

Because adjectives normally come after the noun in Arabic.

So:

• درس صعب = a hard lesson
• امتحان صعب = a hard exam

This is the normal Arabic word order:

• noun + adjective

That is different from English, where we say:

• hard exam
• hard lesson

Because both امتحان and درس are masculine singular nouns, so the adjective also appears in the masculine singular form:

• امتحان = masculine singular
• درس = masculine singular
• صعب = hard, masculine singular

If the noun were feminine, the adjective would usually change:

• مادة صعبة = a difficult subject
• حصة صعبة = a difficult class period

So here صعب stays the same in both clauses because both nouns are masculine singular.

و means and.

So:

• والدرس = and the lesson

In speech, و is attached directly to the next word. That is why you see:

• و + الدرس = والدرس

In pronunciation, this often sounds like w-ed-dars, not a fully separate wa al-dars.

Arabic often repeats words where English might sometimes avoid repetition.

So:

• امتحان امبارح كان صعب، والدرس كان صعب literally repeats was hard in both parts.

This is completely natural. It makes the sentence clear and balanced.

In some contexts, speakers might shorten things, but repeating كان صعب is normal and not awkward.

It is clearly Egyptian Arabic, mainly because of امبارح for yesterday.

In Modern Standard Arabic, you would expect أمس or a different structure, for example:

• كان امتحان أمس صعبًا، وكان الدرس صعبًا

Other differences:

• Egyptian Arabic usually does not mark case endings.
• The vocabulary and pronunciation are more colloquial.
• امبارح is a strong Egyptian everyday word.

So the sentence is natural in Egyptian Arabic, not formal Standard Arabic.

In the present tense, you would usually remove كان:

• امتحان النهارده صعب، والدرس صعب = Today’s exam is hard, and the lesson is hard

Or simply:

• الامتحان صعب، والدرس صعب = The exam is hard, and the lesson is hard

This shows the important pattern:

• present tense: usually no is
• past tense: use كان for was