كان فيه طابور قدام الكاشير، وكان لازم استنى.

فيه in Egyptian Arabic is commonly used to mean there is / there are.

So:

• فيه طابور = there is a line
• كان فيه طابور = there was a line

The word كان puts the whole idea into the past. So كان فيه is a very common way to say there was / there were in spoken Egyptian.

It is the same spelling, but here it has a different function.

In this sentence, فيه is the common Egyptian existential expression meaning there is / there are. So learners should recognize it as a set phrase.

For example:

• فيه ناس بره = There are people outside
• كان فيه مشكلة = There was a problem

So in كان فيه طابور, don’t read فيه literally as in him/it.

Because the second clause is also in the past.

• لازم أستنى = I have to wait
• كان لازم أستنى = I had to wait

So the second كان does the same job as the first one: it shifts the idea into the past. Repeating it is natural and normal in Arabic.

لازم is very common in Egyptian Arabic and means something like necessary, required, or more naturally must / have to.

In everyday speech:

• لازم أروح = I have to go
• لازم نستنى = We have to wait
• كان لازم أستنى = I had to wait

So لازم is not a fully conjugated verb like English must. It behaves more like a fixed word of necessity, followed by a verb.

Because Arabic does not use an infinitive the way English does in sentences like I have to wait.

In English:

• have to + wait

In Egyptian Arabic:

• لازم + imperfect verb

So:

• لازم أستنى literally works like necessary that I wait, but the natural meaning is I have to wait.

There is no separate word equivalent to English to in this structure.

In colloquial Egyptian writing, spelling is often less strict than in Modern Standard Arabic. Many writers omit the initial أ in everyday dialect writing.

So:

• أستنى
• استنى

can both represent I wait / I should wait in informal Egyptian writing, depending on context.

Here, after لازم, the intended meaning is clearly I wait / I had to wait, not the command wait!

If you want a clearer learner-friendly spelling, أستنى is often easier to recognize.

Arabic often drops subject pronouns when the meaning is already clear from the verb or the context.

In a fuller spelling, you could write:

• وكان لازم أنا أستنى
• or more naturally وكان لازم أستنى

The pronoun أنا is usually unnecessary unless you want emphasis.

So Arabic is often more comfortable than English with leaving out I, you, we, etc.

Yes. استنى is the everyday Egyptian Arabic verb for wait.

• استنى = colloquial Egyptian
• أنتظر = more formal / Modern Standard Arabic

So if you are speaking natural Egyptian Arabic, استنى is exactly what you want here.

Examples:

• استنى شوية = Wait a little
• أنا بستنى = I’m waiting
• كان لازم أستنى = I had to wait

قدام means in front of and is very common in Egyptian Arabic.

So:

• قدام الكاشير = in front of the cashier / at the cashier area

Yes, it is similar in meaning to أمام, but:

• قدام = colloquial Egyptian
• أمام = more formal / Standard Arabic

In everyday Egyptian speech, قدام is much more natural.

It can mean the cashier (the person) or the checkout/cashier station, depending on context.

In this sentence, قدام الكاشير most naturally means at/in front of the checkout cashier area. In real life, Arabic often uses the word a bit flexibly, just like English sometimes does with the register or the cashier.

Also, yes, it is a loanword, and Egyptian Arabic treats it like a normal noun, so it can take the definite article:

• كاشير = a cashier
• الكاشير = the cashier

A natural pronunciation would be something like:

kān fīh ṭābūr oddām el-kāshīr, wi-kān lāzim astanna

A few helpful notes:

• و often sounds like wi- before a consonant
• قدام is commonly pronounced something like oddām
• استنى is pronounced astanna

So the flow is smooth and conversational, not word-by-word formal.