فلوس اختي اقل من فلوس صاحبتي، بس هي هتشتري الكتاب بعد الشغل.

The ending -ي means my.

• اختي = my sister
• صاحبتي = my female friend or sometimes my girlfriend, depending on context

This is a very common way to show possession in Arabic. Instead of saying a separate word for my, Arabic often adds a suffix directly to the noun.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

In Egyptian Arabic, صاحبتي literally means my female companion/friend. In real life, it may mean:

• my female friend
• my girlfriend

If the intended meaning has already been given in your lesson, follow that. But by itself, the word can be ambiguous.

فلوس means money in everyday Egyptian Arabic.

Historically, it is a plural form, but in modern usage it works a lot like the English uncountable noun money. So even though it looks plural, learners should usually just understand it as money.

In Egyptian Arabic, فلوس is much more common in everyday speech than more formal words for money.

In Arabic, present-tense sentences often do not use a verb equivalent to English is/are.

So:

• فلوس اختي اقل من فلوس صاحبتي
• literally: my sister’s money less than my friend’s money
• natural English: My sister’s money is less than my friend’s money

This is normal Arabic grammar. In the present tense, the is is usually just understood.

اقل من means less than.

• اقل = less
• من = than

So the pattern is:

• X اقل من Y = X is less than Y

This is the standard comparative pattern in Arabic. After comparatives like bigger, smaller, more, less, Arabic usually uses من for than.

Because the sentence is comparing money to money.

Arabic often repeats the noun to make the relationship clear:

• فلوس اختي = my sister’s money
• فلوس صاحبتي = my friend’s money

If you removed the second فلوس, the sentence could become unclear or unnatural, because then you would be comparing my sister’s money directly to my friend, not to my friend’s money.

In careful Standard Arabic spelling, yes, you would normally write أقل.

But in informal writing, especially in dialect writing, people often leave hamzas out. So forms like these are very common:

• اقل instead of أقل
• اختي instead of أختي

This is especially normal in texting, subtitles, chats, and casual dialect writing.

Here, بس means but.

So the sentence shifts from one idea to a contrasting one:

• first idea: the sister has less money
• second idea: but she will buy the book after work

In Egyptian Arabic, بس is a very common everyday word. In other contexts, it can also mean only or just, so the exact meaning depends on the sentence.

Yes, the verb is often enough by itself.

هتشتري already shows a third-person feminine singular subject, so it already means she will buy. The pronoun هي is added for one of these reasons:

• to make the subject clearer
• to add emphasis
• to create contrast, especially after بس

So:

• بس هي هتشتري الكتاب
• feels a bit like but she will buy the book

Without هي, the sentence could still be grammatical if the context is clear.

هتشتري means she will buy.

Breakdown:

• تشتري = she buys / you buy (to a woman)
• هـ at the beginning marks the future
• so هتشتري = she will buy

In Egyptian Arabic, the future is often marked with هـ or حـ in writing, both representing the spoken future marker ha-.

Yes. In isolation, it can be ambiguous.

Both of these nouns are feminine singular:

• اختي = my sister
• صاحبتي = my female friend

So when the sentence says هي, grammar alone does not fully tell you which one it refers to. Usually, the listener understands it from:

• the wider context
• the previous conversation
• the intended meaning given in the lesson

If someone wanted to remove the ambiguity completely, they could repeat the noun instead of using هي.

الكتاب means the book, so it refers to a specific book.

• كتاب = a book
• الكتاب = the book

Using الـ suggests that the book is already known from context, or that both speaker and listener know which book is meant.

بعد الشغل means after work or after the workday.

• بعد = after
• الشغل = the work / work

In Egyptian Arabic, الشغل is a very common word for work, job, or work-related activity. In a sentence like this, بعد الشغل is a very natural way to say after work.

In pronunciation, many speakers say something close to baʿd esh-shoghl, because the ال in الشغل blends into the ش sound.