قبل ما انام، كنت بدور على التذكرة في الشنطة.

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.

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.

كنت بدور is a very common way to express an ongoing action in the past, like I was looking.

Breakdown:

• كنت = I was
• بدور = I look / am looking

Together:

• كنت بدور = I was looking
• depending on context, it can also sometimes mean I used to look, but here I was looking is the natural meaning

This is the Egyptian equivalent of a past continuous idea.

Because in Egyptian Arabic, the expression for look for / search for is يدوّر على.

So:

• بدور على التذكرة = I’m looking for the ticket
• على is part of the expression

It should not be translated word-for-word as on here. It functions more like part of the verb phrase, similar to how English says look for, not just look.

Here it is pronounced badawwar.

That is because this verb is from دوّر على = to look for / search for.

In casual Arabic writing, short vowels and the shadda are often not written, so بدور may appear without showing the full pronunciation. But in this sentence, the intended pronunciation is:

• badawwar ʿala et-tazkara

If it were pronounced badūr, it could suggest a different verb, so the context is important.

Because Arabic often drops subject pronouns when the meaning is already clear.

So:

• كنت بدور already tells you the subject is I
• adding أنا is possible, but it is usually for emphasis

Compare:

• كنت بدور على التذكرة = I was looking for the ticket
• أنا كنت بدور على التذكرة = I was looking for the ticket with extra emphasis on I

Omitting أنا is completely normal.

Most likely, التذكرة here means the ticket.

In different contexts, تذكرة can sometimes mean things like:

• a ticket
• a note
• a memo
• a reminder

But in everyday speech, one of the most common meanings is ticket, and that is the natural reading here.

في الشنطة means in the bag.

In this sentence, it most naturally tells you the place of the search:

• كنت بدور على التذكرة في الشنطة
• I was looking for the ticket in the bag

It can also imply that the ticket was expected to be there. So in practice, it gives the location connected to the search and the likely location of the ticket.

In both words, the ل of ال is absorbed into the first consonant because these start with sun letters.

So:

• التذكرة is pronounced et-tazkara
• الشنطة is pronounced esh-shanta or ish-shanta

You still write ال, but in speech the next consonant is doubled.

So the whole sentence is approximately:

• ’abl ma anām, kont badawwar ʿala et-tazkara fi sh-shanta

It is Egyptian Arabic.

A few clues:

• قبل ما is very common colloquial structure
• بدور على is colloquial Egyptian wording for look for
• شنطة is a very common everyday Egyptian word for bag
• the overall style is conversational, not formal written Arabic

A Modern Standard Arabic version would be phrased differently.