اذا ما معك قلم، في قلم عالطاولة جنب الدفتر.

If you do not have a pen with you, there is a pen on the table next to the notebook.

Breakdown of اذا ما معك قلم، في قلم عالطاولة جنب الدفتر.

• ال: the
• مع: with
• في: to exist
• ك: you (suffix)

Questions & Answers about اذا ما معك قلم، في قلم عالطاولة جنب الدفتر.

How would a Levantine speaker usually pronounce this sentence?

One common pronunciation is:

iza ma maʿak ʾalam, fī ʾalam ʿaṭ-ṭāwle janb id-daftar.

A few notes:

• قلم is often pronounced ʾalam in many urban Levantine accents because ق can sound like a glottal stop.
• Some speakers keep ق as q, so you may also hear qalam.
• الطاولة often sounds like ṭāwle in everyday speech.
• الدفتر is pronounced with assimilation: id-daftar.

What does اذا ما mean here?

Here اذا ما means if ... not or more naturally if you don’t...

So:

• اذا = if
• ما = negation

Together in this sentence:

• اذا ما معك قلم = if you don’t have a pen

This is a very common colloquial pattern in Levantine.

Why does معك mean you have?