التليفون كان على الشاحن، لكن الفيشة مش في البريزة.

A natural word-by-word breakdown is:

• التليفون = the phone
• كان = was
• على = on
• الشاحن = the charger
• لكن = but
• الفيشة = the plug
• مش = not / isn’t
• في = in
• البريزة = the wall socket / outlet

So the sentence is literally something like:

The phone was on the charger, but the plug isn’t in the outlet.

In context, that gives the idea that the phone looked like it was charging, but the charger was not actually plugged in.

كان is the past form of to be.

In Egyptian Arabic, many sentences do not need a verb in the present:

• التليفون على الشاحن = the phone is on the charger

To move that idea into the past, you add كان:

• التليفون كان على الشاحن = the phone was on the charger

So كان is what makes the first part past.

Because Egyptian Arabic very often uses a topic first style in everyday speech.

So:

• التليفون كان على الشاحن = as for the phone, it was on the charger

This is extremely natural in conversation. You could also hear a structure with كان earlier, but noun-first is very common when the speaker is talking about a known thing and then commenting on it.

With chargers, على is very natural in Egyptian Arabic. It often means:

• physically on the charger
• connected to the charger
• put on charge

So على الشاحن works a lot like English on the charger.

It does not always guarantee that the device is actually receiving power. In this sentence, the second clause explains exactly that: the phone was on the charger, but the charger’s plug was not in the wall.

They refer to different parts:

• الشاحن = the charger
• الفيشة = the plug

So the idea is:

• the phone was connected to or sitting on the charger
• but the charger’s plug was not in the wall outlet

That is why the phone was not really charging.

In Egyptian Arabic, مش is the usual negator for non-verbal sentences in the present, including sentences with prepositions:

• الفيشة في البريزة = the plug is in the outlet
• الفيشة مش في البريزة = the plug is not in the outlet

That part is a prepositional sentence, so مش is perfectly normal.

A learner may notice that the English meaning is often given as wasn’t in the outlet. If you want to make the Arabic explicitly past too, a very common version would be:

• لكن الفيشة ما كانتش في البريزة

That means but the plug wasn’t in the outlet.

So the given sentence is conversational and natural, but if you want the second clause clearly in the past, ما كانتش is the form to learn.

Yes, you often can.

• لكن = but
• بس = but / except / just, depending on context

In everyday Egyptian speech, بس is very common, and many speakers might say:

• التليفون كان على الشاحن، بس الفيشة مش في البريزة.

That sounds very natural too.

Very roughly:

• لكن can sound a bit clearer or slightly more careful
• بس can sound more casual and conversational

Both are common.

البريزة means the electrical outlet / wall socket.

This is a very common everyday Egyptian word. A learner should definitely know it.

A more formal or Standard Arabic word would be something like:

• المقبس

But in normal Egyptian speech, البريزة is much more likely.

Because they are definite:

• التليفون = the phone
• الشاحن = the charger
• الفيشة = the plug
• البريزة = the outlet

The speaker is talking about specific, known objects in the situation, not just any phone or any charger.

If you removed ال, the meaning would become less specific. For example:

• في بريزة = in an outlet / in a socket

But here the sentence is about a particular outlet, so في البريزة is natural.

Yes. In Egyptian Arabic, الموبايل is extremely common for mobile phone / cell phone.

So you could say:

• الموبايل كان على الشاحن، لكن الفيشة مش في البريزة.

That would sound very normal.

Very roughly:

• التليفون can mean phone in general
• الموبايل specifically points more clearly to a mobile phone

In modern everyday speech, الموبايل is often the most common choice for a cell phone.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

it-tilifōn kān ʿala sh-shāḥin, lākin il-fīsha mish fil-birēza

A few useful notes:

• التليفون is commonly pronounced something like it-tilifōn
• الشاحن sounds like ish-shāḥin when pronounced carefully, because the ال assimilates before ش
• في البريزة is often heard smoothly as fil-birēza

You do not need to worry too much about perfect transliteration at first. The main thing is to recognize the chunks:

• التليفون كان على الشاحن
• لكن الفيشة مش في البريزة