ما لقيت قياسي بهالمحل، بس لقيته بالمحل يلي قدام البنك.

لقيت is the past-tense form meaning I found or sometimes I met.

Here it means I found because of the object قياسي = my size. So the context is shopping, not meeting a person.

Also, the ending -ت tells you the subject is I in the past:

• لقيت = I found
• لقى = he found
• لقيتِ = you found, to a woman, in many pronunciations

In Levantine Arabic, ما before a past verb commonly makes it negative.

So:

• لقيت = I found
• ما لقيت = I didn’t find

This is a very normal Levantine pattern. A learner who knows Egyptian Arabic might expect something like ما لقيتش, but in Levantine ما لقيت is perfectly standard.

Because the verb already tells you the subject.

In لقيت, the ending -ت already means I. So saying أنا is usually unnecessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

For example:

• لقيت قياسي = I found my size
• أنا لقيت قياسي = I found my size, with extra emphasis

قياسي means my size.

It is:

• قياس = size / measurement
• -ي = my

So:

• قياسي = my size

In shopping Arabic, this usually means a clothing or shoe size. You may also hear مقاسي in similar contexts. Both are used, depending on the speaker and region.

The first time, the object is stated explicitly:

• لقيت قياسي = I found my size

The second time, Arabic uses an attached object pronoun:

• لقيته = I found it

Here, -ه means it, referring back to قياسي.

This is very natural Arabic style: say the noun once, then refer back to it with a pronoun.

بهالمحل means in this shop or at this shop.

It is made of:

• بـ = in / at
• ها or هالـ = this
• محل = shop / store / place

So:

• بهالمحل = in this shop

This kind of combination is extremely common in Levantine:

• هالبيت = this house
• هالولد = this boy
• بهالشارع = in this street

Here, بس means but.

So:

• ما لقيت قياسي بهالمحل، بس لقيته...
• I didn’t find my size in this shop, but I found it...

Important note: بس can also mean only or just in other contexts. So learners often have to rely on context.

Examples:

• بس هون = only here
• كنت تعبان، بس رحت = I was tired, but I went

يلي means that, which, or the one that in relative clauses.

In this sentence:

• المحل يلي قدام البنك
• the shop that is in front of the bank

A useful thing for learners: يلي does not usually change for gender or number. It works for masculine, feminine, singular, and plural in everyday Levantine.

You may also see or hear variants like:

• يلي
• اللي
• يلّي

They all serve the same basic job.

Because in Arabic, present-tense is / are is usually not said in this kind of sentence.

So:

• المحل يلي قدام البنك literally looks like
• the shop that in front of the bank

But in natural English, we translate it as:

• the shop that is in front of the bank

This is a very common Arabic feature, not something special to this sentence.

قدام البنك literally means in front of the bank.

In real-life location descriptions, it can sometimes sound like:

• in front of the bank
• opposite the bank
• across from the bank

The exact English choice depends on the situation. If you are describing where a shop is on a street, across from the bank may be the most natural translation in some contexts.

Yes. محل is a very common everyday Levantine word for shop, store, or business place.

So:

• محل تياب = clothing shop
• محل أحذية = shoe shop

Compared with that, متجر sounds more formal or more like Modern Standard Arabic.

Yes, both بـ and في can express location, and both are understood.

But in Levantine, بـ is extremely common for in / at:

• بالمحل = in/at the shop
• بالبيت = at home / in the house
• بالمدرسة = at school

So بالمحل sounds very natural here.

A common urban Levantine pronunciation would be approximately:

ma laʔēt ʔyāsi b-hal-maḥall, bas laʔēto b-il-maḥall yalli ʔuddām il-bank

A few useful notes:

• ق is often pronounced as a glottal stop ʔ in many Levantine accents, especially urban ones.
• So لقيت often sounds like laʔēt
• قدام may sound like ʔuddām in those accents
• لقيته is often pronounced something like laʔēto, even though it is written with ه

Some speakers, depending on region, keep ق as q, so you might also hear: ma laqēt qiyāsi... quddām...