هو قال لي: ده سر.

A common Cairene-style pronunciation is roughly:

howwa 'āl li: da serr

A few notes:

• هو is often pronounced howwa.
• قال is often pronounced 'āl in Egyptian, because ق is usually realized as a glottal stop.
• ده is usually pronounced da.
• سر is often pronounced close to serr.

Transliteration varies a lot, so you may also see slightly different spellings in learning materials.

Because Arabic verbs already show the subject, قال by itself can already mean he said.

So:

• قال لي = he said to me / he told me
• هو قال لي = he said to me / he told me, with هو adding clarity, contrast, or emphasis

In natural speech, both are possible. Including هو is very normal when the speaker wants to make the subject explicit.

Literally, قال لي means said to me:

• قال = said
• لي = to me

In English, we often translate this more naturally as told me, especially before reported speech.

So even though the Arabic is literally said to me, the English meaning may be he told me.

لي is made from:

• لـ = to / for
• ـي = me

Together, they become لي = to me / for me.

This is a very common pattern in Arabic:

• له = to him
• لها = to her
• لهم = to them

So قال لي is literally said to me.

In Egyptian Arabic, ده is the masculine singular demonstrative, often meaning this.

But in a sentence like ده سر, it does not mean this secret. Instead, it works more like:

• this is
• that is
• it is

So:

• ده سر = this is a secret / that is a secret / it's a secret

The exact English wording depends on context.

It is simply not expressed.

In Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually omitted in sentences like:

• he is a teacher
• this is a secret
• the room is big

So ده سر has no separate word for is, but it still means this is a secret.

If you want past or future, Arabic does use other words, such as forms of كان.

In Egyptian Arabic, ده سر is normally a full sentence:

• ده سر = this is a secret / it's a secret

If you want this secret as a noun phrase, Egyptian usually says:

• السر ده = this secret

That word order difference is very important:

• ده سر = sentence
• السر ده = noun phrase

Because سر is masculine.

In Egyptian Arabic:

• ده = masculine singular
• دي = feminine singular

So:

• ده سر = this is a secret
• دي مشكلة = this is a problem

If the noun is feminine, you normally use دي instead.

Because the meaning is a secret, not the secret.

So:

• سر = a secret or just secret in this kind of sentence
• السر = the secret

Compare:

• ده سر = this is a secret
• ده السر = this is the secret
• السر ده = this secret

These are three different meanings.

Yes. That is completely natural.

Because قال already tells you the subject is he, you can say:

• قال لي: ده سر

Adding هو can make the sentence feel more explicit, contrastive, or conversational:

• هو قال لي: ده سر
• هي قالت لي: ده سر
• أنا قلت له: ده سر

So both versions are correct.

This is direct speech.

The words after the colon are presented as the actual words said:

• هو قال لي: ده سر.

If you want indirect speech, you would usually use إن:

• هو قال لي إن ده سر = he told me that this is a secret

So the original sentence is a direct quote, not a paraphrase.

Yes.

In everyday Egyptian Arabic, ده is often broader than English this. Depending on context, it may be best translated as:

• this
• that
• it

So ده سر could come out in natural English as:

• This is a secret
• That is a secret
• It's a secret

The situation tells you which English version sounds best.

Yes. In informal writing, spacing is often flexible, so you may see things like:

• هو قال لي
• هو قالي
• قاللي

These all represent the same basic spoken structure. Dialect writing is less standardized than Modern Standard Arabic, so small spelling differences are common. The meaning and grammar stay the same.