مبارح طلعنا عالسطح بالليل بعد العشا.

مبارح means yesterday.

It is a very common Levantine everyday word. In MSA you would usually say أمس. You may also see امبارح in casual writing; that is just a common spelling variant.

So this sentence is clearly colloquial Levantine, not formal standard Arabic.

Yes. In English, last night is the most natural translation.

But in Levantine, مبارح بالليل is very normal and literally means yesterday at night. Together, they give the meaning last night.

So:

• مبارح = yesterday
• بالليل = at night
• مبارح بالليل = last night

Here طلعنا means we went up.

The verb طلع is very common in Levantine and can have several related meanings, such as:

• go up
• come up
• go out
• rise

In this sentence, because of عالسطح meaning to the roof / rooftop, the meaning is clearly we went up.

Also, -نا at the end means we, so:

• طلع = he went up / came up
• طلعنا = we went up

Yes, رحنا عالسطح would also be possible, but it is a little less specific.

• رحنا = we went
• طلعنا = we went up

Because a roof is an upward destination, طلعنا is especially natural. It highlights the movement upward, while رحنا just says we went more generally.

In everyday Levantine, على is very commonly used with places like this, especially when the idea is movement onto or up to a surface or upper place.

So:

• طلعنا عالسطح = we went up to the roof / rooftop

Using إلى would sound much more formal and more like MSA. In normal speech, Levantine usually prefers على or other everyday prepositions instead of formal إلى.

عالسطح is the colloquial written form of على السطح.

So it breaks down like this:

• على = on / onto / to
• السطح = the roof / rooftop

In casual Levantine writing, these often get written together:

• على السطح → عالسطح

This kind of spelling is very common in informal dialect writing.

Because س is a sun letter, the l sound of الـ assimilates in pronunciation.

So although it is written with ال, it is pronounced more like:

• ʿas-saṭḥ or in some accents:
• ʿas-saṭeḥ

That is why learners often hear a doubled s sound.

So:

• written: عالسطح
• underlying form: على السطح
• natural pronunciation: closer to ʿas-saṭḥ / ʿas-saṭeḥ

السطح literally means the roof, but in many Levantine contexts it often refers to a flat roof area that people can actually go up to.

So depending on context, English might translate it as:

• the roof
• the rooftop

In this sentence, rooftop is often the most natural idea.

بالليل means at night or in the nighttime.

It is made of:

• بـ = in / at
• الليل = the night

So literally it is in the night, but naturally it means at night.

By itself, it does not mean tonight. For tonight, Levantine often uses الليلة.

العشا is the normal colloquial Levantine word for dinner / supper.

In MSA, the word is العشاء. In everyday Levantine speech, that final hamza is usually not pronounced the same way, and the word is commonly said as العشا.

So:

• العشاء = formal / MSA
• العشا = everyday Levantine

In Arabic, meals are very often used with the definite article when talking about a specific meal in context.

So بعد العشا naturally means after dinner.

This is similar to how Arabic often treats familiar daily events as definite. In English we do not say after the dinner in this kind of sentence, but in Arabic the definite form is very normal.

The word order is flexible.

Starting with مبارح is very natural because it sets the time right away:

• مبارح طلعنا عالسطح بالليل بعد العشا

But speakers could also say things like:

• طلعنا عالسطح مبارح بالليل بعد العشا
• بعد العشا طلعنا عالسطح
• بالليل بعد العشا طلعنا عالسطح

The original order sounds very natural because it begins with the time frame and then gives the action.

A broad pronunciation would be:

mbaareḥ ṭliʿna ʿas-saṭḥ bil-lēl baʿd il-ʿasha

A few notes:

• ḥ = a stronger h sound
• ʿ = the Arabic letter ع
• ṭ = an emphatic t
• exact vowels vary by country, city, and speaker

So the important rhythm is roughly:

mbar(e)ḥ | ṭliʿna | ʿas-saṭḥ | bil-lēl | baʿd il-ʿasha