حطينا الكيكة على الطاولة قبل ما يوصلوا الضيوف.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation is:

ḥaṭṭeena l-keeke ʿa ṭ-ṭaawle qabel ma yoṣalu ḍ-ḍyūf

A few useful notes:

• حطينا = ḥaṭṭeena
• الكيكة is often pronounced il-keeke or l-keeke in connected speech
• على is very often shortened to ʿa
• الطاولة is often pronounced more like ṭ-ṭāwle
• الضيوف is often pronounced more like ḍ-ḍyūf

So in fast natural speech, the sentence can sound quite compressed.

It is clearly colloquial Levantine, not formal Standard Arabic.

Some clues:

• حطّ is the everyday Levantine verb for to put
• كيكة is a common spoken word for cake
• قبل ما is a very common colloquial way to say before
• The sentence has no formal case endings
• The overall rhythm and vocabulary are conversational

A more formal Standard Arabic version would look different.

حطينا means we put.

It comes from the verb حطّ = to put / place.

The ending -نا shows the subject we. So:

• حطّيت = I put
• حطّينا = we put

Arabic often puts the subject inside the verb itself, so you do not need a separate word for we unless you want emphasis.

Because Arabic verbs usually already contain the subject.

In this sentence:

• حطينا already means we put
• يوصلوا already means they arrive

So separate pronouns like نحنا for we or هنّ for they are not necessary.

You could add them for emphasis, but normally you would not:

• نحنا حطينا الكيكة... = We put the cake...
• قبل ما هنّ يوصلوا... = before they arrive...

Without emphasis, leaving them out is more natural.

Yes. كيكة is a very normal everyday word in Levantine for cake.

It is basically a borrowed word, and in speech it behaves like a regular Arabic noun. Here it appears as:

• الكيكة = the cake

It is usually treated as feminine, which is why the form ends in ـة.

Depending on region and speaker, you may hear small pronunciation differences, but كيكة is very common and natural.

على الطاولة means on the table.

In everyday Levantine speech, على is very often shortened from ʿalā to just ʿa. Also, على + ال is often merged in pronunciation.

So you may hear:

• على الطاولة
• عالطاولة

Both mean on the table, and the shorter spoken form is extremely common.

Here, قبل ما means before.

In this structure, ما does not mean not. It is part of the expression that introduces the following verb.

So:

• قبل ما يوصلوا الضيوف = before the guests arrive / arrived

For learners, it is best to understand قبل ما as one chunk meaning before when followed by a verb.

This is a very common Arabic pattern.

After قبل ما, Levantine usually uses the imperfect verb form:

• قبل ما يوصلوا الضيوف

Even though English often translates this with a past verb, Arabic is thinking of the arrival as something that was still pending at that moment.

So the logic is roughly:

• We put the cake on the table
• before the guests were due to arrive

That is why يوصلوا is natural here.

Excellent question. In Levantine, the prefix بـ often marks the regular present or habitual meaning.

For example:

• بيوصلوا = they arrive / they are arriving / they usually arrive

But after words like قبل ما, speakers usually use the bare imperfect without بـ:

• قبل ما يوصلوا

This is very normal after conjunctions and similar structures. So in this sentence, يوصلوا is exactly what you would expect.

الضيوف means the guests.

Its singular is:

• ضيف = guest

Its plural is:

• ضيوف = guests

This is a broken plural, which means the plural is formed by changing the internal pattern of the word, not just by adding a regular ending.

That is very common in Arabic, and learners need to get used to memorizing many plurals individually.

Because Arabic allows the subject to come after the verb very naturally.

So:

• يوصلوا الضيوف = the guests arrive

This word order is completely normal in Levantine.

You could also hear:

• قبل ما الضيوف يوصلوا

That is also natural. The meaning stays basically the same, but the focus and flow of the sentence may feel slightly different.

Because ط and ض are sun letters.

When الـ comes before a sun letter, the l sound is absorbed, and the next consonant is doubled in pronunciation.

So:

• الطاولة is pronounced more like aṭ-ṭāwle
• الضيوف is pronounced more like aḍ-ḍyūf

But with الكيكة, the letter ك is a moon letter, so the l is pronounced:

• الكيكة → il-keeke / el-keeke

This is a pronunciation rule, not a spelling change.

Yes. Arabic is flexible with word order.

For example, you could also say:

• قبل ما يوصلوا الضيوف، حطينا الكيكة على الطاولة
• حطينا الكيكة عالطاولة قبل ما الضيوف يوصلوا

These versions still mean essentially the same thing: We put the cake on the table before the guests arrived.

The main difference is emphasis and sentence flow, not the core meaning.