Word
امي كانت عم تشوف عنوان المحل بالايميل لما فتحت الباب.
Meaning
My mother was looking at the shop address in the email when she opened the door.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Lesson
Questions & Answers about امي كانت عم تشوف عنوان المحل بالايميل لما فتحت الباب.
Why is it كانت and not كان?
Because امي means my mother, and that is feminine singular.
In Levantine, the past of كان agrees with gender:
- كان = he was
- كانت = she was
So امي كانت = my mother was.
What does كانت عم تشوف mean grammatically?
This is a very common Levantine way to express the past continuous or past progressive.
Breakdown:
- كانت = she was
- عم = marks an action as ongoing/in progress
- تشوف = she sees / is seeing / is looking
So كانت عم تشوف means she was looking, she was checking, or she was seeing, depending on context.
It is the Levantine equivalent of English was + -ing.
What exactly does عم do here?
عم is an aspect marker. It shows that the action is in progress.
Compare:
- بتشوف = she sees / she looks / she watches
- عم تشوف = she is looking / she is watching
- = she was looking / she was watching