اول ما دخلت الاوضة، شغلت النور عشان اشوف الورقة على الكرسي.

أول ما is a very common way to say as soon as or when first in Egyptian Arabic.

So:

• أول ما دخلت الاوضة = as soon as I entered the room

It often gives a sense that the next action happened immediately after the first one.

Yes. لما دخلت الاوضة would also mean when I entered the room.

The difference is nuance:

• لما = when
• أول ما = as soon as / the moment that

So أول ما sounds a bit more immediate.

دخلت is the past tense of دخل = to enter.

The -ت ending is part of the past-tense conjugation. In writing, دخلت can be ambiguous by itself, because it can represent different persons depending on context and pronunciation. Here, the rest of the sentence makes it clear that it means I entered.

So in this sentence:

• دخلت = I entered

أوضة / اوضة is a common Egyptian Arabic word for room.

A learner should know:

• Egyptian Arabic: أوضة / اوضة
• Modern Standard Arabic: غرفة

So this sentence is clearly colloquial Egyptian, not Standard Arabic.

Also, in informal writing, people often spell it الاوضة without worrying about the hamza very much.

Yes, literally شغّلت comes from a verb meaning to run, operate, switch on.

In Egyptian Arabic:

• شغلت النور = I turned on the light
• literally, something like I switched on the light

This is a very normal way to say it. Another common opposite expression is:

• طفيت النور = I turned off the light

In Egyptian Arabic, النور is a very common everyday way to mean the light, especially a lamp or room light.

So:

• شغلت النور = I turned on the light

Even though نور literally means light in a broad sense, in daily speech it often refers to the actual electric light in a room.

Here عشان means so that or in order to.

So:

• شغلت النور عشان اشوف الورقة
• I turned on the light so that I could see the paper

A useful thing to know is that عشان can also mean because in other contexts. Its exact meaning depends on the sentence.

Here it introduces a purpose, not a reason.

Because after عشان, Egyptian Arabic normally uses the imperfect verb form to express purpose.

So:

• عشان اشوف = so that I see / in order to see

In natural English, we usually translate this with an infinitive:

• to see
• so I could see

Arabic does not handle this in exactly the same way English does, so the imperfect verb is normal here.

Because Arabic forms the past and present/imperfect differently.

For I:

• in the past, you often get a suffix like -ت
  • دخلت = I entered
  • شغلت = I turned on
• in the present/imperfect, you often get the prefix أ-
  • أشوف = I see

So this sentence shows two different tense systems:

• دخلت، شغلت = past
• أشوف = imperfect/present form used after عشان

Because informal Arabic writing, especially dialect writing, often leaves hamzas out.

So you may see:

• الاوضة instead of الأوضة
• اشوف instead of أشوف

This is extremely common online, in messages, and in casual writing. It does not necessarily mean the writer is changing the word; it is just a relaxed spelling style.

ورقة can mean several related things, depending on context:

• a paper
• a sheet of paper
• a note/document
• sometimes a leaf

In this sentence, because it is on the chair and the speaker turns on the light to see it, the natural meaning is probably the paper or the sheet of paper.

Yes.

• على = on
• الكرسي = the chair

So:

• على الكرسي = on the chair

In fast Egyptian speech, على is often shortened in pronunciation, so you may hear something closer to علَ الكرسي or عالكرسي in connected speech.

Because they are definite nouns, meaning the ...

Here we have:

• الاوضة = the room
• النور = the light
• الورقة = the paper
• الكرسي = the chair

That is very natural in Arabic. In this context, the speaker is talking about specific things in a known setting.

Also, pronunciation can change with الـ:

• النور is pronounced with assimilation, roughly in-nūr / en-nūr, not a full el-nūr
• this is because ن is a sun letter

But:

• الكرسي keeps the l sound, because ك is not a sun letter

A useful approximate pronunciation is:

awwal ma dakhalt il-ōḍa, shaghghalt in-nūr ʿashān ashūf il-warʔa ʿal il-kursi

A few notes:

• أول = awwal
• الأوضة / الاوضة has a glottal stop at the beginning in careful speech
• شغلت has a doubled middle consonant: shagh-ghalt
• النور is pronounced with assimilation: in-nūr
• الورقة includes a glottal stop near the end: warʔa

Yes, it is specifically Egyptian Arabic.

Some clear signs are:

• الأوضة / الاوضة for room
• عشان for so that
• the overall colloquial style

A more Standard Arabic version might use words like:

• الغرفة instead of الأوضة
• لكي or حتى instead of عشان

So this sentence is a good example of natural spoken Egyptian rather than formal Standard Arabic.