لما طلعت السلم، بقيت تعبان.

Here لما means when or after.

In Egyptian Arabic, لما + past tense often introduces something that happened first, followed by the result:

لما طلعت السلم، بقيت تعبان
= When/After I went up the stairs, I got tired

So it is setting up the first event before the second one.

طلعت is from the verb طلع.

This verb has several related meanings in Egyptian Arabic, such as:

• go up
• come up
• climb
• sometimes go out

In this sentence, because it is followed by السلم, it means I went up / climbed the stairs.

So طلعت السلم is a very natural way to say I went up the stairs.

Because Egyptian Arabic often expresses this idea with the verb itself.

English says:

• go up the stairs
• climb the stairs

Egyptian Arabic commonly says:

• طلع السلم

So the meaning of up is already built into طلع here. You do not need a separate word.

Because Arabic does not always match English word-for-word in number.

السلم can mean:

• the stairs
• the staircase
• the stairway

So even though English uses a plural noun, Egyptian Arabic often uses السلم naturally for the whole set of stairs.

If you wanted to talk about the individual steps, you would use a different expression.

Here بقيت means I became or I got.

That can surprise learners, because بقى can also mean remain/stay in some contexts. But in Egyptian Arabic, it very often means become.

So:

• بقيت تعبان = I became tired / I got tired

This is a very common Egyptian usage.

Because تعبان is an adjective meaning tired.

Egyptian Arabic often uses:

• بقى + adjective

to mean become + adjective.

So:

• بقيت تعبان = I became tired

This is different from:

• كنت تعبان = I was tired

So بقيت تعبان shows a change of state, while كنت تعبان just describes a state in the past.

تعبان is the masculine form, so it would be said by a male speaker.

A female speaker would say:

لما طلعت السلم، بقيت تعبانة

Important detail: the verbs طلعت and بقيت stay the same in the I form whether the speaker is male or female. The adjective is what changes.

Because Arabic often leaves subject pronouns out when the verb already makes the subject clear enough from context.

So:

• طلعت can mean I went up
• بقيت can mean I became

Adding أنا is possible, but not necessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

This is very normal in Egyptian Arabic.

Yes. On its own, طلعت can be ambiguous in Egyptian Arabic. Depending on context, it could mean:

• I went up
• you (masculine singular) went up
• she went up

The same kind of ambiguity can happen with بقيت.

In real conversation, context usually makes the meaning clear. Since the meaning has already been given to you, you know that here it is intended as I.

If someone wants to make it extra clear, they can add the pronoun:

• أنا طلعت السلم، وبقيت تعبان

A common pronunciation is:

lamma ṭileʿt is-sullam, baʔeet taʿbān

A few notes:

• ṭ is an emphatic t
• ʿ represents the Arabic letter ع
• ʔ represents a small stop sound

Pronunciation can vary a bit from speaker to speaker, but this gives you a good general Egyptian reading.