قبل ساعة كان في ولد قدام البيت.

In this sentence, قبل ساعة means an hour ago.

Literally, قبل means before, so word-for-word it looks like before an hour. But in everyday Levantine, قبل + time expression is a very common way to say ... ago.

Examples:

• قبل شوي = a little while ago
• قبل يومين = two days ago
• قبل سنة = a year ago

So here, the natural meaning is an hour ago.

Because في on its own usually gives a present-time existence meaning:

• في ولد قدام البيت = There is a boy in front of the house

To make that idea past, Levantine commonly uses كان في:

• كان في ولد = There was a boy

So in your sentence:

• قبل ساعة sets the time: an hour ago
• كان في gives the meaning there was

Together:

• قبل ساعة كان في ولد قدام البيت = An hour ago, there was a boy in front of the house

Good question. In Levantine, في can do two different jobs:

1. Preposition: in
2. Existential marker: there is / there are

In this sentence, it is the existential one:

• كان في ولد = there was a boy

So here في does not mean in. It is part of the very common pattern كان في = there was / there were.

Because ولد is masculine singular, so كان is the expected form.

• ولد = boy
• masculine singular → كان

If the noun were clearly feminine, you might expect كانت, for example:

• كانت في بنت = there was a girl

That said, in spoken Levantine, the existential pattern كان في... is often used very broadly, even when the following noun is feminine or plural. But with ولد, كان is completely straightforward.

Because it means a boy, not the boy.

Arabic often marks definiteness with الـ:

• ولد = a boy / boy
• الولد = the boy

So:

• كان في ولد = there was a boy
• كان في الولد would usually not be the normal way to say there was the boy

The sentence is introducing an indefinite person, so ولد without الـ is exactly what you would expect.

Usually, ولد means boy.

Depending on context, it can sometimes also mean:

• kid
• child (less precise)
• son in some expressions

But in this sentence, the most natural meaning is simply boy.

Here, قدام means in front of.

So:

• قدام البيت = in front of the house

It is a very common Levantine word for location. In other contexts, قدام can sometimes have a sense related to before / ahead of, but here it is clearly spatial.

Because البيت means the house, a specific house.

• بيت = a house / house
• البيت = the house

So:

• قدام البيت = in front of the house

If you said قدام بيت, it would sound less specific, more like in front of a house or in front of some house, depending on context.

Yes. Levantine word order is fairly flexible.

Your sentence:

• قبل ساعة كان في ولد قدام البيت

Another natural order:

• كان في ولد قدام البيت قبل ساعة

Both are understandable and natural. The difference is mainly focus:

• starting with قبل ساعة puts the time first
• putting قبل ساعة later makes it sound a little less fronted, a little more like added information

So the original sentence is very natural if the speaker wants to set the time frame first.

A common pronunciation would be roughly:

'abl sāʿa kān fī walad 'addām il-bēt

A few notes:

• قبل is often pronounced 'abl in many urban Levantine accents, because ق may become a glottal stop.
• Some speakers keep a q sound, so you may also hear qabl.
• ساعة is pronounced sāʿa.
• قدام is often pronounced something like 'addām / qaddām, depending on the speaker and region.
• البيت is often il-bēt or el-bēt.

So pronunciation varies a bit by country, city, and speaker, but the structure stays the same.

You would normally say:

قبل ساعة ما كان في ولد قدام البيت

That means:

An hour ago, there wasn't a boy in front of the house.

The common negative pattern is:

• كان في... = there was / there were
• ما كان في... = there wasn't / there weren't

This is one of the most useful everyday patterns in Levantine.