هلا ما في حدا قدام البيت، بس قبل كان في سيارة.

Yes—here هلا means now / right now.

In Levantine, هلا can have more than one use depending on context. It can be part of greetings in some situations, but in this sentence it is clearly a time word because it introduces the current situation:

هلا ما في حدا... = Now there’s nobody...

So here, think of it as a very common spoken alternative to more formal الآن.

Not here. In this sentence, في is being used in its existential sense, meaning there is / there are.

So:

• في حدا = there is someone / is there anyone?
• ما في حدا = there isn’t anyone
• كان في سيارة = there was a car

In other sentences, في can absolutely mean in, but not in this specific use.

This is a very common spoken Levantine pattern:

• ما = negation
• في = there is / there are

So together:

• ما في = there isn’t / there aren’t

Examples:

• ما في وقت = There’s no time
• ما في ناس = There aren’t any people
• ما في حدا = There’s nobody / There isn’t anyone

It’s one of the most useful everyday structures in Levantine.

حدا basically means someone / anyone / a person in Levantine.

Its exact English translation depends on the sentence:

• في حدا = there’s someone or is there anyone?
• ما في حدا = literally there isn’t anyone, which naturally becomes there’s nobody

So حدا itself does not mean no one. The negative meaning comes from ما في.

قدام means in front of.

So:

• قدام البيت = in front of the house

In Levantine, this kind of expression often works directly without an extra word like English of. You just put the place after قدام.

Examples:

• قدام المدرسة = in front of the school
• قدام السيارة = in front of the car

Because البيت means the house, a specific house known from context.

• قدام البيت = in front of the house
• قدام بيت = more like in front of a house

Arabic does not use a/an the way English does, but it does clearly mark the with الـ. Here the speaker is talking about a particular house, so البيت is natural.

Here it means but.

That’s important because بس can also mean only / just in other contexts. The meaning depends on how it is being used in the sentence.

In your sentence, it connects two contrasting ideas:

• هلا ما في حدا قدام البيت
• بس قبل كان في سيارة

So here بس = but.

Here قبل means before / earlier / previously.

So بس قبل means something like:

• but earlier
• but before
• but previously

In everyday Levantine, قبل often works by itself like this to refer to an earlier time.

Because Levantine commonly forms there was / there were by putting كان before existential في.

• في سيارة = there is a car
• كان في سيارة = there was a car

This is a very common spoken structure. You can think of it as the past version of في.

Because Arabic does not have an indefinite article like English a/an.

So:

• سيارة can mean a car
• السيارة means the car

That means كان في سيارة naturally translates as there was a car, even though there is no separate word for a.

Yes, it’s very natural and very common.

Literally, it is closer to there isn’t anyone, but in English we often translate it as there’s nobody because that sounds more natural.

This pattern is extremely common in speech:

• ما في مشكلة = there’s no problem
• ما في وقت = there’s no time
• ما في حدا = there’s nobody / there isn’t anyone

The given order is very natural, but spoken Levantine does allow some flexibility, especially with time expressions like هلا and قبل.

Your sentence starts with هلا to set the time immediately:

هلا ما في حدا قدام البيت...

That feels very natural in conversation. But you might also hear things like:

• ما في حدا قدام البيت هلا
• قبل كان في سيارة، بس هلا ما في حدا قدام البيت

So the exact order can move around a bit, but the version you have is completely normal.