عمرك شفت البحر بالليل؟

Not literally. Here عمرك is an idiomatic Egyptian Arabic way to mean ever in your life.

• عمر can relate to life / lifetime / age
• -ك means your

So عمرك شفت...؟ is a very common pattern meaning Have you ever seen... ? or more literally In your life, have you seen... ?

It is not asking How old are you?

Because Egyptian Arabic often uses a past-tense verb to talk about life experience in this kind of question.

So:

• English: Have you ever seen the sea at night?
• Egyptian Arabic: عمرك شفت البحر بالليل؟

There is no separate helping verb like have here. The idea of ever in your life is carried by عمرك, and the main verb stays in the past form.

Yes. By itself, شفت can be ambiguous in writing and can mean:

• I saw
• you saw (to a masculine singular person)

But in this sentence, عمرك makes the meaning clear. Since عمرك means your lifetime, the verb is understood as you saw.

So here the sentence is clearly addressing you, not I.

As written, it is most naturally understood as addressing a man (or a generic singular you in casual writing).

For a woman, you would usually say:

• عمرك شفتي البحر بالليل؟

The difference is:

• شفت = you saw (masculine singular)
• شفتي = you saw (feminine singular)

Because Arabic often uses the definite article where English might also use the, especially with familiar or general things like the sea.

So:

• البحر = the sea

In this sentence, it sounds natural to say البحر, not bare بحر.

بالليل literally breaks down as:

• بـ = in / at
• الليل = the night

So بالليل means at night or during the night.

In pronunciation, the l sound is doubled, so it sounds something like bil-lēl.

A common approximate pronunciation is:

ʿomrak shoft il-baḥr bil-lēl?

A few notes:

• ع in عمرك has no exact English equivalent
• ḥ in baḥr is a stronger, breathier h
• الـ in البحر is often pronounced il- in Egyptian Arabic

Different transliterations are possible, so you may also see spellings like:

• omrak shoft el-ba7r bel-leil
• omrak shoft il-baḥr bil-lēl

No. In everyday Egyptian Arabic, you usually do not need هل.

This sentence becomes a question through:

• context
• intonation
• the expression عمرك

So عمرك شفت البحر بالليل؟ is perfectly natural Egyptian Arabic.

Using هل would sound formal or more like Modern Standard Arabic, not everyday Egyptian speech.

This is clearly Egyptian Arabic.

Some clues:

• شفت is colloquial
• بالليل is very natural colloquial phrasing
• the whole pattern عمرك شفت...؟ is strongly dialectal

In Modern Standard Arabic, you would more likely say something like:

• هل رأيت البحر ليلًا من قبل؟
• هل سبق أن رأيت البحر ليلًا؟

So a learner should treat this sentence as Egyptian spoken Arabic, not formal written Arabic.

The order is:

• عمرك = ever in your life
• شفت = you saw
• البحر = the sea
• بالليل = at night

So the sentence is structured more like:

Ever in your life, saw you the sea at night?

That is not natural English, of course, but it helps show how the Arabic pieces fit together.

A few natural answers would be:

• أيوه، شفته. = Yes, I have. / Yes, I saw it.
• أيوه، شفته قبل كده. = Yes, I’ve seen it before.
• لا، ما شفتوش. = No, I haven’t / No, I didn’t see it.
• لا، عمري ما شفته. = No, I’ve never seen it.

A very useful pattern is:

• عمري ما... = I’ve never...

So the question uses عمرك...؟ = Have you ever... ? and the matching negative answer often uses عمري ما... = I’ve never...