المرة دي كانت من زمان.

A natural Egyptian pronunciation is:

el-marra di kānit min zamān

You may also hear small vowel differences, like il-marra or men zamān. That is normal in Egyptian speech.

A rough stress pattern is:

el-MAR-ra di KAA-nit min za-MAAN

Word by word:

• المرة = el-marra
• دي = di
• كانت = kānit
• من زمان = min zamān

Here مرة means time, occasion, or instance.

So in Egyptian Arabic:

• أول مرة = the first time
• كل مرة = every time
• المرة دي = this time / this occasion

It does not mean woman here, and it does not mean the number one time in a counting sense. It means a particular occasion.

Because in Egyptian Arabic, demonstratives like ده and دي usually come after the noun.

So Egyptian normally says:

• الكتاب ده = this book
• البنت دي = this girl
• المرة دي = this time

Literally, it is closer to the time this.

This noun + demonstrative order is very common in spoken Egyptian Arabic.

Because in Arabic, a noun with a demonstrative is usually still marked as definite.

So Egyptian says:

• البيت ده = this house
• العربية دي = this car
• المرة دي = this time

For an English speaker, that can feel like the this time, but in Arabic that is just the normal structure.

So الـ here is not extra or strange; it is exactly what you expect.

Because مرة is a feminine noun.

That affects two things here:

1. The demonstrative:

   • ده = this for masculine nouns
   • دي = this for feminine nouns

2. The past form of كان:

   • كان = masculine
   • كانت = feminine

So since مرة is feminine, you get:

• المرة دي
• كانت

A masculine comparison would be:

• الوقت ده كان من زمان = this time/that time was long ago

من زمان is a very common expression meaning:

• a long time ago
• long ago
• for a long time
  depending on context

In this sentence, it means long ago.

It is best learned as a chunk: من زمان.

Even though من often means from, you should not translate this too literally word-for-word. As a phrase, it simply works as a time expression.

Examples:

• شوفته من زمان = I saw him a long time ago
• ما شفتوش من زمان = I haven't seen him in a long time

Yes, زمان can appear by itself, and it often means long ago, formerly, or in the old days.

But من زمان is extremely common and often sounds more natural in everyday Egyptian when talking about how long ago something was.

So:

• زمان = possible
• من زمان = very common, very natural

In this sentence, من زمان sounds very normal.

The sentence is clearly natural in Egyptian Arabic, especially because of المرة دي.

What makes it feel Egyptian:

• the demonstrative دي after the noun
• the very common spoken phrase من زمان

In MSA, you would usually say something different, such as:

• هذه المرة كانت منذ زمن طويل
• or, if the meaning is really that time, تلك المرة كانت منذ زمن طويل

So the vocabulary is not wildly different, but the structure here is strongly colloquial Egyptian.

Formally, دي is the feminine form of this.

But in real translation, English may sometimes use that instead, depending on context.

For example, if people are talking about a past event already mentioned, English might naturally say:

• That time was long ago

Even though the Arabic still says دي.

So grammatically it is this, but the best English translation may shift a little depending on what the speaker is referring back to.