هي قاعدة تقطع الطماطم، وانا قاعد بقطع البصل.

In Egyptian Arabic, the present-tense to be is usually not said. So:

• هي قاعدة = she is sitting / she is in the middle of...
• أنا قاعد = I am sitting / I am in the middle of...

This is normal Arabic grammar. English needs is/am, but Egyptian Arabic usually does not in the present.

Literally, قاعد means sitting for a male, and قاعدة means sitting for a female.

But in Egyptian Arabic, قاعد / قاعدة is also very often used to show that an action is currently going on, a bit like be + -ing in English. So it can mean more than just physical sitting.

In this sentence, it helps give the sense of she’s in the middle of cutting... / I’m in the middle of cutting...

Because قاعد / قاعدة changes for gender:

• قاعد = masculine singular
• قاعدة = feminine singular

So:

• هي قاعدة because هي is she
• أنا قاعد if the speaker is male
• A female speaker would usually say أنا قاعدة

So the second half suggests the speaker is male. If the speaker were female, it would be:

• وأنا قاعدة بقطع البصل

In Egyptian Arabic, the present/imperfect verb for she often begins with تـ.

So:

• هي تقطع = she cuts / she is cutting

This can look confusing because تـ is also used in some you forms. So تقطع can mean different things in different contexts, but here هي makes it clear that it means she cuts / she is cutting.

The بـ is a very common marker in Egyptian Arabic present-tense verbs. It often appears in sentences about:

• present actions
• repeated actions
• ongoing actions, depending on context

So:

• بقطع = I cut / I’m cutting

In everyday Egyptian, بـ is extremely common in the present tense.

That is a great question, because learners notice this quickly.

After قاعد / قاعدة, speakers may use the following verb:

• without بـ: قاعدة تقطع
• or with بـ: قاعد بقطع

Both patterns are heard in Egyptian Arabic, and everyday speech is not always perfectly symmetrical. So this sentence is natural colloquial Arabic, even though the two halves are built a little differently.

You could also hear:

• هي قاعدة بتقطع الطماطم، وأنا قاعد بقطع البصل
• هي بتقطع الطماطم، وأنا بقطع البصل

All of these can work.

Often, yes, especially if the subject is already clear.

Arabic verbs and participles already give a lot of information, so speakers do not always need the subject pronoun. For example:

• قاعدة تقطع الطماطم
• قاعد بقطع البصل

can be understood from context.

However, pronouns are often kept for:

• clarity
• contrast
• emphasis

Here, هي ... وأنا ... nicely sets up a contrast: she ... and I ...

Because Arabic often uses the definite article الـ in places where English might or might not use the.

So in a kitchen context:

• الطماطم = the tomatoes
• البصل = the onions / the onion

This sounds very natural in Arabic when talking about the ingredients being worked on. English may say tomatoes and onions more freely without the, but Arabic often prefers the article here.

Yes. وانا is just an informal way of writing و أنا, meaning and I.

In casual writing, people often join words together or ignore formal spelling conventions. You may also see:

• وأنا
• و أنا
• وانا

In informal Egyptian writing, all of these are common.

Yes, absolutely. That is a very common and natural way to say it.

Compare:

• هي بتقطع الطماطم، وأنا بقطع البصل
• هي قاعدة تقطع الطماطم، وأنا قاعد بقطع البصل

The version with قاعد / قاعدة often gives a stronger sense of right now / in the middle of doing it. The simpler بـ-present version is also very common and often enough by itself.

A rough pronunciation would be:

• heyya ʾāʕda teʾṭaʕ eṭ-ṭamāṭem, w ana ʾāʕed baʾṭaʕ el-baṣal

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• ق in many Egyptian words is often pronounced like a glottal stop ʾ, not like a hard q
• ط is an emphatic t
• الطماطم is pronounced with assimilation of الـ to ط, so it sounds like eṭ-ṭamāṭem, not al-tamaatem

So the written form and the spoken Egyptian form are not always identical, and that is completely normal.