كان لازم ارتب البيت قبل ما يجو الضيوف.

كان لازم means it was necessary or more naturally I had to.

Literally, the structure is something like:

• كان = was
• لازم = necessary / must / have to

So كان لازم أرتّب البيت is literally it was necessary that I tidy the house, but in natural English that becomes I had to tidy the house.

In Levantine, لازم is very common for obligation:

• لازم روح = I have to go
• كان لازم روح = I had to go

Because لازم works like an impersonal expression: it is necessary.

So Arabic says:

• كان لازم أرتّب = it was necessary for me to tidy

It does not usually say:

• كنت لازم أرتّب

That would sound unnatural in most Levantine varieties.

So the past is shown by putting كان before لازم, not by changing it to كنت.

Because the verb itself already shows the subject.

أرتّب means I tidy / I arrange. The أ- at the beginning marks first person singular.

So:

• أرتّب = I tidy
• ترتّب = you tidy / she tidies, depending on context
• يرتّب = he tidies

In casual writing, people often leave out the pronoun أنا unless they want emphasis. So أرتّب البيت already means I tidy the house.

This is very common in informal Levantine writing.

The fuller spelling would be أرتّب:

• أ marks the first-person prefix
• ّ shows the doubled consonant in رتّب

But in texting or casual writing, people often simplify spelling and leave out things like:

• the hamza-on-alif أ
• the shadda ّ

So ارتب is just a casual way of writing أرتّب.

You should understand it as:

• أرتّب = I tidy / I arrange

Because after words like لازم, Levantine usually uses the bare imperfect rather than the b- form.

Compare:

• بِرتّب البيت = I am tidying / I tidy the house
• لازم أرتّب البيت = I have to tidy the house

The b- form often expresses regular, ongoing, or plain present action. After modals such as لازم, the language usually switches to the bare imperfect:

• لازم أروح = I have to go
• كان لازم أدرس = I had to study
• لازم نخلص = we have to finish

So كان لازم أرتّب is the expected pattern.

قبل ما means before when followed by a verb clause.

So:

• قبل = before
• قبل ما يجو الضيوف = before the guests come

This is a very common colloquial structure in Levantine.

Examples:

• قبل ما نام = before I sleep
• قبل ما تروح = before you go
• قبل ما يبلش الفيلم = before the movie starts

No. In this sentence, ما is not negative.

In قبل ما يجو الضيوف, the ما is just part of the connector after قبل. It helps introduce the following verb clause.

So here:

• ما does not mean not
• the phrase as a whole means before the guests come

This can be confusing because ما very often does mean negation in Arabic, but not in every expression.

يجو is the Levantine colloquial form meaning they come.

It comes from the verb إجا / ييجي or إجا / يجي, meaning to come.

Here:

• يجو = they come

Why not بيجوا? Because after قبل ما, Levantine commonly uses the bare imperfect, just like after لازم.

Why not جاؤوا? Because جاؤوا is Standard Arabic, not everyday Levantine speech.

So the sentence is using normal spoken Levantine grammar:

• قبل ما يجو الضيوف = before the guests come

You may also see spellings like:

• يجوا
• يجو

Both are common informal spellings.

Because it marks the third person plural in colloquial Levantine.

So:

• يجي = he comes
• يجو = they come

In informal spelling, the plural may appear as:

• يجو
• يجوا

Both are trying to represent the same spoken form.

This is a normal colloquial plural ending in Levantine verbs.

Because verb-first word order is very natural in Arabic, especially in clauses like this.

So:

• قبل ما يجو الضيوف = before the guests come

This is a very normal Levantine structure.

Arabic often allows both verb-first and subject-first patterns, but verb-first is especially common after connectors and in narrative-style sentences.

So a learner should get used to seeing:

• إجا الولد = the boy came
• راحوا الشباب = the guys went
• يجو الضيوف = the guests come

Because the sentence is talking about specific, known guests.

الضيوف means the guests. In context, these are the guests expected to arrive.

If you said just ضيوف, that would sound more like guests in a general or less specific sense.

So:

• الضيوف = the guests
• ضيوف = guests

In this sentence, the definite form is the natural choice.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Literally, البيت is often translated as the house or the home. In this sentence, English would usually prefer the house or the place if you are focusing on tidying a physical space, but home is also possible depending on the translation style.

In everyday Arabic, بيت is very common for both:

• the physical house/apartment
• the home as a lived-in place

So أرتّب البيت is a very natural way to say tidy the house / tidy up the home.

Yes, it is clearly colloquial Levantine rather than Standard Arabic.

Some Levantine features here are:

• لازم used in an everyday spoken way for obligation
• قبل ما as a colloquial connector
• يجو as a spoken plural verb form
• casual spelling like ارتب instead of أرتّب
• no case endings, which is normal in speech

A Standard Arabic version would look more formal and different in wording, for example:

• كان عليّ أن أرتّب البيت قبل أن يأتي الضيوف

That is grammatical Standard Arabic, but much less natural in everyday Levantine conversation.

Not necessarily.

It means I had to tidy the house or I was supposed to tidy the house. By itself, it only tells you about the necessity or obligation.

Whether the speaker actually did it depends on context.

For example:

• كان لازم أرتّب البيت قبل ما يجو الضيوف، وبالفعل رتّبته = I had to tidy the house before the guests came, and I did
• كان لازم أرتّب البيت قبل ما يجو الضيوف، بس ما لحقت = I had to tidy the house before the guests came, but I didn’t have time

So the sentence expresses obligation, not completion.