امي كانت مريضة مبارح، واليوم لسه تعبانة شوي.

امي means my mother. It is أم / ام (mother) plus -ي (my).

In Levantine, it is usually pronounced immi or emmi, not the more formal MSA-style ummī. In casual writing, people often write امي without the hamza.

كانت is the feminine past form of كان and means was.

So:

• كانت مريضة = she was sick

Because أمي is feminine, the verb has to be feminine too, so you use كانت, not كان.

This is a very common way to describe a past condition in Arabic: كان/كانت + adjective.

They agree with أمي, which is feminine.

Arabic adjectives usually match the noun in gender, so:

• masculine: مريض = sick, تعبان = tired
• feminine: مريضة = sick, تعبانة = tired

So because the person being described is mother, the feminine forms are used.

Both are feminine, but they come from different adjective patterns.

• مريض → مريضة
• تعبان → تعبانة

So the difference is lexical/pattern-based, not a difference in meaning or grammar. In Levantine, feminine endings can sound like -a or -e depending on the word and the dialect. Here many speakers would say something like:

• marīḍa
• taʿbāne

They are related, but not identical.

• مريضة = sick / ill
• تعبانة = tired / exhausted / worn out / not feeling great

So the sentence suggests a natural progression:

• yesterday she was sick
• today she is still a bit tired

In everyday speech, تعبان/تعبانة can sometimes also mean generally not feeling well, depending on context.

مبارح means yesterday. Yes, it is a very common Levantine dialect word.

Compared with MSA:

• Levantine: مبارح
• MSA: أمس

If you're learning spoken Levantine, مبارح is the normal everyday word to know.

Because in Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually not spoken.

So:

• اليوم لسه تعبانة شوي literally looks like today still tired a little
• but it means today she is still a little tired

The subject she is understood from context, so Arabic does not need to say it explicitly here.

You could say هي for emphasis, but it is not necessary:

• واليوم هي لسه تعبانة شوي

Here لسه means still.

So:

• لسه تعبانة = still tired

This word is very common in Levantine. Depending on context, it can also mean yet:

• لسه ما إجى = he hasn’t come yet

So in this sentence, the meaning is clearly still, not yet.

شوي means a little / a bit.

So:

• تعبانة شوي = a little tired / a bit tired

It softens the statement and makes it sound more natural and conversational. In English, it is the difference between:

• she’s tired
• she’s a little tired

In Levantine, شوي is extremely common in everyday speech.

Because short words like و (and) are written attached to the following word in Arabic script.

So:

• و + اليوم → واليوم

This is completely normal Arabic spelling. The same thing happens with other short particles and prepositions too.

A natural pronunciation would be something like:

immi kānet marīḍa mbāreḥ, wil-yōm lissa taʿbāne shwayy

A few useful notes:

• امي → immi / emmi
• كانت → kānet
• مبارح → mbāreḥ
• واليوم → wil-yōm
• لسه → lissa / lessa
• شوي → shwayy

Exact pronunciation varies by country and city, but this is a good Levantine-style approximation.

Yes, you can include هي, but it is usually unnecessary.

• واليوم لسه تعبانة شوي = natural, everyday
• واليوم هي لسه تعبانة شوي = also correct, but a bit more explicit or emphatic

In Arabic, once the subject is clear, speakers often leave it out. So the version without هي sounds very normal.