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

I did not find my size in this shop, but I found it in the shop in front of the bank.

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

• ي: my
• ال: the
• قدام: in front of
• ب: in

Questions & Answers about ما لقيت قياسي بهالمحل، بس لقيته بالمحل يلي قدام البنك.

What does لقيت mean, and how do I know it means I found?

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

How does ما لقيت make a negative?

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.

Why isn’t أنا written? How do we still know the subject is I?

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