ابي ما اكل فطور اليوم لانه ما كان عنده وقت.

In Levantine Arabic, you usually do not use a separate word for did the way English does.

So:

• أكل = he ate
• ما أكل = he didn’t eat

The negative particle ما goes before the verb, and that is enough.

English needs didn’t eat, but Levantine can simply say ما أكل.

أبي literally means my father.

In actual everyday speech, depending on the country and family, it may sound:

• neutral
• a bit careful
• sometimes slightly more formal than the most casual family words

Very common everyday alternatives in Levantine include things like:

• بيّي
• أبوي

So أبي is understandable and correct, but it is not the only way Levantine speakers might say my dad.

No, you normally do not need هو here.

Arabic verbs already show the subject, and when you also mention the noun أبي, the subject is already clear:

• أبي ما أكل = My father didn’t eat

Adding هو would usually be unnecessary here. In many contexts it can sound marked, contrastive, or unnatural.

So the normal pattern is simply:

• أبي ما أكل...

In Levantine, فطور usually means breakfast.

So:

• أكل فطور = ate breakfast
• ما أكل فطور = didn’t eat breakfast

Be careful with إفطار:

• In Modern Standard Arabic, إفطار can refer to breakfast
• But in many everyday contexts, especially in Muslim usage, إفطار often means the meal used to break the fast in Ramadan

So for ordinary daily breakfast, فطور is the usual Levantine word.

Yes, اليوم can move around.

In this sentence:

• أبي ما أكل فطور اليوم

it means My father didn’t eat breakfast today.

This word order is very natural. But Arabic often allows some flexibility depending on emphasis. For example, you may also hear:

• أبي اليوم ما أكل فطور
• اليوم أبي ما أكل فطور

These all point to the same basic meaning, but the emphasis shifts slightly.

The original sentence sounds normal and natural.

لأنه means because.

It introduces the reason:

• لأنه ما كان عنده وقت = because he didn’t have time

You can think of it as:

• لـ = for / because of
• أنه = that / he

But as a learner, the easiest thing is to memorize لأنه as one chunk meaning because.

You will hear related forms too:

• لأني = because I...
• لأنك = because you...
• لأنها = because she...

Arabic often expresses to have using a structure like at someone there is.

So:

• عنده وقت = literally at him [there is] time
• natural English: he has time

And in the past:

• كان عنده وقت = he had time
• ما كان عنده وقت = he didn’t have time

This is a very important pattern in Levantine:

• عندي = I have
• عندك = you have
• عنده = he has
• عندها = she has

So ما كان عنده وقت is the natural Levantine way to say he didn’t have time.

كان is the past form of to be, but in sentences like this it helps put the whole idea into the past.

Compare:

• عنده وقت = he has time
• كان عنده وقت = he had time
• ما كان عنده وقت = he didn’t have time

So كان is what makes عنده وقت refer to the past.

This is one of the most useful things to learn in Levantine.

Yes. وقت is the ordinary word for time in this context, and it is very natural.

• عنده وقت = he has time
• ما عنده وقت = he doesn’t have time

Another word you may hear is زمان, but that usually means time in a broader sense, like an era or a period of time, not the immediate practical sense of having enough time to do something.

So here, وقت is exactly the right word.

A common broad transliteration would be:

abii ma akal fṭoor il-yoom laanno ma kaan ʿando وقت

More naturally broken down:

• أبي → abii
• ما أكل → ma akal
• فطور → fṭoor / ftoor
• اليوم → il-yoom or lyoom, depending on the speaker
• لأنه → laanno / la2anno
• ما كان عنده وقت → ma kaan ʿando waʔet

A few notes:

• أكل is often pronounced akal
• لأنه in speech is often laanno
• عنده is commonly ʿando
• وقت may sound like waʔet or wakt depending on region

Pronunciation varies across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.

Yes, for Levantine conversation, ما أكل فطور is much more natural.

• ما أكل فطور = everyday spoken Levantine
• لم يأكل الفطور = Standard Arabic, formal, written, or very careful speech

If you are learning Levantine for conversation, the sentence you were given is the kind of structure you want to remember.

In Levantine, both patterns can exist, but أكل فطور without ال is very natural.

Arabic often omits the article in expressions involving meals, especially in everyday speech:

• أكل فطور = ate breakfast
• أكل غدا = ate lunch
• أكل عشا = ate dinner

Using الفطور is not impossible, but فطور on its own sounds very normal here.

Depending on context, yes, Arabic past forms can sometimes overlap with English present perfect in translation.

• أبي ما أكل فطور اليوم

can often be translated as:

• My father didn’t eat breakfast today
• or, in some contexts, My father hasn’t eaten breakfast today

If the day is still ongoing, English may prefer hasn’t eaten. But Arabic commonly still uses the simple past form ما أكل.

So the Arabic is normal either way; the best English translation depends on context.