ابني بالمدرسة.

A common Levantine pronunciation is:

ebni bil-madrase

A rough breakdown:

• ابني → ebni = my son
• بالمدرسة → bil-madrase = at the school / at school

A few notes:

• The first word often sounds like ebni, not a very formal ibnī.
• المدرسة in Levantine is usually madrase, not madrasa.
• بـ here is usually pronounced bi- or bil- before ال.

In Levantine Arabic, sentences in the present tense often do not use a separate word for is / am / are.

So:

• ابني بالمدرسة literally looks like my son at-school
• but it naturally means My son is at school

This is very normal in Arabic.
Compare:

• أنا تعبان = I am tired
• هي بالبيت = She is at home
• ابني بالمدرسة = My son is at school

If you want past or future, then other words are used, but in simple present statements, the verb to be is usually left out.

The word is made of:

• ابن = son
• -ي = my

So:

• ابن → son
• ابني → my son

This -ي ending is a very common way to show possession in Arabic.

More examples:

• بيتي = my house
• كتابي = my book
• أمي = my mother

So instead of using a separate word for my, Arabic often adds it directly to the noun.

Here, بـ means something like in / at.

So:

• المدرسة = the school
• بالمدرسة = in the school / at the school

In this sentence, the most natural English translation is usually at school.

In Levantine, بـ is used very often for location:

• بالبيت = at home / in the house
• بالشغل = at work
• بالجامعة = at the university

So ابني بالمدرسة means your son is located there: My son is at school.

Because بـ joins directly to the noun, and when the noun has ال (the), they combine in writing:

• بـ + المدرسة
• becomes بالمدرسة

This is very common in Arabic spelling.

Similar examples:

• ب + البيت → بالبيت
• ب + الجامعة → بالجامعة

So بالمدرسة is just the normal written form of in/at + the school.

That is a dialect feature.

In Modern Standard Arabic, مدرسة is pronounced more like madrasa(h).
In Levantine, it is commonly pronounced:

madrase

This change happens with many words ending in ـة:

• سيارة → sayyāra in MSA, but often closer to sayyāra or regional variants in speech
• مدرسة → madrase
• جامعة → jāmʿa or similar colloquial forms

So if you learned madrasa before, hearing madrase in Levantine is completely normal.

Yes, you may hear that, and it is understandable. But in everyday Levantine, ابني بالمدرسة is very natural and common.

Very roughly:

• بالمدرسة is a very everyday Levantine way to say at school / in school
• في المدرسة is also possible, but may sound a bit more neutral, formal, or closer to Standard Arabic depending on context and speaker

So if your goal is natural spoken Levantine, بالمدرسة is an excellent choice.

It can literally mean in the school, but in normal usage it often corresponds to English at school.

That is because Arabic often uses location expressions more literally than English does.

So:

• ابني بالمدرسة usually means My son is at school
• depending on context, it could also be understood as My son is in the school building

In most everyday situations, the intended meaning is simply that your son is there, at school.

The basic sentence:

ابني بالمدرسة

is very natural and straightforward.

It starts with the topic:

• ابني = my son

and then gives information about him:

• بالمدرسة = at school

You may also hear different word orders for emphasis, such as:

• بالمدرسة ابني but that would usually sound marked or context-dependent, like emphasizing where he is.

For a learner, ابني بالمدرسة is the safest and most natural version to use.

In Levantine, a common negation is مو.

So:

• ابني بالمدرسة = My son is at school
• ابني مو بالمدرسة = My son is not at school

This is a very useful pattern:

• أنا مو تعبان = I’m not tired
• هي مو بالبيت = She isn’t at home
• ابني مو بالمدرسة = My son isn’t at school

So if you want to say the opposite of the original sentence, مو is the key word.