لما لقيت الدوا على الطاولة، اخدته معي عالشغل.

Here, لما means when.

In Levantine Arabic, لما + past verb is a very common way to introduce a past-time clause:

• لما لقيت... = when I found...

It is the natural spoken equivalent of more formal words like عندما in Modern Standard Arabic.

Depending on context, لما can sometimes feel like when, once, or as soon as.

Because the sentence is describing two completed actions in the past:

• first: لقيت = I found
• second: اخدته = I took it

This is normal in Arabic. After لما, using the past tense is very common when talking about something that happened and was followed by another past action.

So the structure is basically:

• When I found X, I took it with me...

لقيت means I found here.

It comes from the verb لقي / يلاقي or لِقي / يِلقى depending on dialect pronunciation. In Levantine, this is a very common everyday verb for to find.

A useful thing to know: لقي can also mean to meet / come across, depending on context.

For example:

• لقيت مفاتيحي = I found my keys
• لقيت صاحبي = I met my friend / ran into my friend

So learners often need to rely on context.

الدوا is the normal Levantine colloquial form of medicine.

In Modern Standard Arabic, you would more often see:

• الدواء

In Levantine speech, the word is usually shortened in pronunciation and spelling to:

• دوا
• الدوا = the medicine

So this is a dialect difference, not a different word.

The -ه is the object pronoun meaning it (or him, depending on context).

Breakdown:

• اخدت = I took
• -ه = it

So:

• اخدته = I took it

Because الدوا is grammatically masculine, Arabic uses the masculine singular object pronoun.

A very important pronunciation note: in Levantine, this ending is often pronounced more like -o in everyday speech, even though it is written with ه.

So اخدته may sound like:

• akhadto
• or akhadet-o, depending on the speaker/subdialect

معي means with me.

So:

• اخدته معي = I took it with me

This adds the idea of bringing it along, not just taking it in a general sense.

In Levantine, you may also hear:

• معي
• معاي

Both are common, depending on region and speaker.

عالشغل is a shortened spoken form of:

• على الشغل

In Levantine, على often gets reduced to عَ / عـ before the next word, especially in fast everyday speech.

So:

• عالشغل = to work / to the workplace

Even though على literally often means on, in expressions like this it functions more like English to.

This kind of phrase is very common in Levantine:

• عالبيت = home
• عالجامعة = to the university
• عالشغل = to work

Because Levantine Arabic often uses everyday prepositions differently from English and from formal Arabic.

In spoken Levantine, على is very commonly used with destinations:

• رايح عالبيت = I’m going home
• نزلت عالسوق = I went down to the market
• أخدته معي عالشغل = I took it with me to work

Using إلى would sound formal or bookish in normal conversation. A native speaker in daily speech would strongly prefer عالشغل.

Yes. شغل is a very common Levantine word with several related meanings, including:

• work
• job
• stuff / things
• business / matter

In this sentence, عالشغل clearly means to work or to the workplace.

So context tells you which meaning is intended.

Arabic often does not need an extra word like then when the sequence is already clear from context.

The order of events is understood naturally:

1. لما لقيت الدوا على الطاولة
2. اخدته معي عالشغل

English sometimes likes to make that sequence explicit with then, but Arabic can simply place the two clauses one after the other.

If a speaker wanted extra emphasis, they could add something like وبعدين in another context, but it is not necessary here.

A natural approximate pronunciation would be:

lamma lʔēt id-dawa ʿaṭ-ṭāwle, akhadto maʿi ʿash-shughl

A few pronunciation notes:

• لقيت often sounds like lʔēt / laʔēt
• الدوا is often pronounced id-dawa or ed-dawa
• على الطاولة becomes something like ʿaṭ-ṭāwle
• اخدته is often pronounced with final -o
• عالشغل sounds like ʿash-shughl

You do not need to pronounce every part exactly like the spelling suggests if you want to sound natural in Levantine.

It is clearly colloquial Levantine-style Arabic.

Signs of that include:

• لقيت for I found
• الدوا for the medicine
• اخدته for I took it
• عالشغل as a spoken contraction

Speakers of other dialects would probably understand it, but they might phrase parts of it differently in their own dialect.

It would not sound like formal Modern Standard Arabic.