في الحفلة كان فيه ناس كتير من العيلة.

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Breakdown of في الحفلة كان فيه ناس كتير من العيلة.

• في: at
• من: from
• فيه: there is

Questions & Answers about في الحفلة كان فيه ناس كتير من العيلة.

What does في الحفلة mean here? Is it literally in the party or more like at the party?

Here it means at the party.

The preposition في literally means in, but with events in Egyptian Arabic, it often corresponds to natural English at:

• في المدرسة = at school / in the school
• في الشغل = at work
• في الحفلة = at the party

In speech, في الحفلة is often pronounced something like fil-ḥafla.

Why does the sentence use كان فيه?

كان فيه is a very common Egyptian Arabic way to say there was / there were.

• فيه = there is / there are
• كان فيه = there was / there were

So the structure is not just a normal verb plus subject. It is an existential expression, like English there is / there are.

Examples:

• فيه مشكلة = There is a problem.
• كان فيه مشكلة = There was a problem.
• كان فيه ناس = There were people.

What is the difference between the first في and the فيه after كان?

They are doing two different jobs.

• في at the beginning is a preposition meaning