قبل ما انام، كنت بدور على التذكرة في الشنطة.

Before I slept, I was looking for the ticket in the bag.

Breakdown of قبل ما انام، كنت بدور على التذكرة في الشنطة.

• ال: the
• في: in
• شنطة: bag
• يكون: to be

Questions & Answers about قبل ما انام، كنت بدور على التذكرة في الشنطة.

What does قبل ما mean, and why is ما there?

قبل ما means before when it is followed by a verb.

• قبل = before
• ما here is not not
• together, قبل ما is a very common Egyptian pattern meaning before doing something / before someone does something

So قبل ما انام means before I sleep / before I go to sleep.

Why is it انام and not a past-tense verb if the English meaning is before I went to sleep?

In Egyptian Arabic, after قبل ما, the verb is often in the present/imperfect form, even when the whole sentence refers to the past.

So:

• قبل ما انام literally looks like before I sleep
• but in natural English, in this sentence, it means before I went to sleep or before sleeping

The time reference comes from the whole sentence, not just from انام by itself.

What does كنت بدور mean exactly?