لما وصلنا عالفندق، طلبوا يشوفوا الجواز والتذكرة.

Here لما means when or once/as soon as in a past-time story.

So لما وصلنا... = when we arrived...

In Levantine, لما is very common for setting up a past event:

• لما رجعت = when I came back
• لما شافني = when he saw me

It is usually pronounced lamma.

وصلنا breaks down like this:

• وصل = arrived / reached
• -نا = we

So وصلنا literally means we arrived.

Arabic often attaches subject pronouns directly to the verb in the past tense, so you do not need a separate word for we unless you want emphasis.

Compare:

• وصلت = I arrived
• وصلتِ = you arrived (to a woman)
• وصلوا = they arrived
• وصلنا = we arrived

Yes. عالفندق is the colloquial Levantine contraction of على الفندق.

In Levantine, على often becomes عَ in fast, natural speech. When it comes before الـ, you often get:

• على الفندق → عالفندق
• على الباب → عالباب
• على الطريق → عالطريق

Here it means to the hotel or at the hotel, depending on how you want to phrase it in English. With وصلنا, English usually says we arrived at the hotel.

طلبوا is the past tense plural form meaning they asked or they requested.

Breakdown:

• طلب = he asked / requested
• طلبوا = they asked

The sentence does not explicitly name who they are, because Arabic often leaves that understood from context. Here it probably means the hotel staff, the reception people, or the employees there.

This is very normal in both Arabic and English when the context makes the group obvious.

Because Arabic verbs already show the subject.

The ending -وا in طلبوا already tells you the subject is they. So adding a separate pronoun like هنّ or هم is usually unnecessary unless you want emphasis.

So:

• طلبوا = they asked

The same idea appears in وصلنا:

• -نا already tells you it means we

Yes, literally يشوفوا is they see / they look at, but in this kind of sentence it means to see after طلبوا.

So:

• طلبوا يشوفوا الجواز = they asked to see the passport

This is very normal in Levantine. After verbs like طلب in colloquial Arabic, you often get another verb directly in the imperfect, without the formal أن that you might expect in Standard Arabic.

A more formal/Standard-style equivalent would be something like:

• طلبوا أن يروا الجواز
• طلبوا رؤية الجواز

But in Levantine, طلبوا يشوفوا sounds natural and everyday.

Because شاف / يشوف is the normal everyday Levantine verb for to see.

In spoken Levantine:

• شاف = he saw
• يشوف = he sees / to see

The verb رأى belongs more to Modern Standard Arabic and formal writing. In conversation, Levantine speakers usually say شاف rather than رأى.

Also, in this sentence يشوفوا can mean not just see, but check / look at / inspect in a practical sense.

Arabic often uses the definite article الـ where English might not, especially when the items are specific and already understood from the situation.

Here, the speaker means the passport and the ticket—that is, the relevant documents the traveler has with them. In natural English, we might translate that simply as:

• they asked to see the passport and ticket or
• they asked to see our passport and ticket depending on context.

So the definiteness in Arabic does not always match English word-for-word.

Yes. In everyday speech, الجواز very often means the passport.

The full expression is:

• جواز سفر = passport

But in context, speakers often shorten it to just:

• جواز

Be aware that جواز can have other meanings in other contexts, but in a travel/hotel sentence it naturally means passport.

It is mainly Levantine colloquial Arabic.

Clues include:

• عالفندق instead of the fuller على الفندق
• يشوفوا using the everyday verb شاف / يشوف
• the colloquial structure طلبوا يشوفوا without formal أن

At the same time, a lot of the vocabulary is shared with Standard Arabic, so a learner may recognize many words.

The structure is:

• لما وصلنا عالفندق = when we arrived at the hotel
• طلبوا يشوفوا الجواز والتذكرة = they asked to see the passport and the ticket

Arabic often likes verb-first structure, especially in narration:

• وصلنا = we arrived
• طلبوا = they asked

So the sentence flows very naturally as:

1. the time/event setup
2. the next action

That is a very common storytelling pattern in spoken Arabic.

A rough pronunciation would be:

lamma wosalna ʿal-funduʔ, talaboo yshoofoo l-jawaaz w-et-tazkira

A few notes:

• لما = lamma
• عَـ in عالفندق is a short a
• يشوفوا sounds like yshoofoo
• الجواز = il-jawaaz or l-jawaaz depending on the speaker
• التذكرة may sound like et-tazkira

Exact pronunciation varies by country and city, but that rough version will help you hear the sentence more easily.