لما وصلنا عالطابق التاني، شفت المصعد مفتوح.

In this sentence, لما means when or once/as soon as in a past-time story.

So لما وصلنا... means something like:

• when we arrived...
• once we got to...

In Levantine, لما is very common in narration and everyday speech.

Because Arabic verbs usually already include the subject.

In this sentence:

• وصلنا = we arrived
• شفت = I saw

The subject is built into the verb, so you do not need separate pronouns like نحن or أنا unless you want extra emphasis.

The verb endings are different:

• وصلنا → -نا = we
• شفت → -ت = I

So the sentence starts with a shared action, we arrived, and then switches to the speaker’s personal action, I saw.

If the speaker wanted to say we saw, it would be:

• شفنا = we saw

عالطابق is a contraction of:

• على = on / to
• الطابق = the floor / level

So:

• على الطابق → عالطابق

This kind of contraction is very common in Levantine speech.

Also, because ط is a sun letter, the ل of ال is not pronounced separately, so it sounds like عَطّابق rather than عال-طابق.

Because التاني is the normal colloquial Levantine form for second.

Compare:

• Levantine: التاني
• MSA: الثاني

In everyday speech, Levantine often uses:

• أول = first
• تاني = second
• تالت = third

So الطابق التاني is the natural colloquial way to say the second floor.

Also, تاني can mean again in other contexts, but here it clearly means second because it follows الطابق.

Linguistically, it means the second floor / level.

But whether that matches second floor in every variety of English depends on local floor-numbering conventions. For example:

• in some places, the ground floor is separate, so second floor is two levels up
• in other places, the first level at street level may already be called first floor

So Arabic الطابق التاني simply means floor number two in the local counting system.

Yes, المصعد is correct and widely understood, but it can sound a bit formal or standard.

In everyday Levantine, many speakers also say:

• الأسانسير or الأسنصير = elevator / lift

So both are possible, but:

• المصعد = more standard / formal
• الأسانسير = very common in casual speech

This is a very common structure with verbs of perception such as see.

It works like this:

• شفت = I saw
• المصعد = the elevator
• مفتوح = open

So literally it is:

• I saw the elevator open

Here مفتوح describes the state of المصعد at the moment the speaker saw it.

English often does the same thing:

• I saw the door open
• I found the window closed

So there is no extra word needed for was here.

Because مفتوح agrees with المصعد, and المصعد is masculine singular.

So:

• المصعد مفتوح = the elevator is open

If the noun were feminine, you would use مفتوحة instead. For example:

• النافذة مفتوحة = the window is open

Because this sentence is in Levantine colloquial Arabic, not fully inflected MSA.

In colloquial Arabic:

• case endings are normally dropped
• tanwīn endings like -ًا are not used in ordinary speech

So Levantine says:

• شفت المصعد مفتوح

not:

• شفت المصعد مفتوحًا

That more formal ending belongs to MSA-style grammar, not everyday spoken Levantine.

Not necessarily.

In Levantine, شفت can mean:

• I saw
• I noticed
• I found

So in this sentence, depending on context, it could mean either:

• the speaker literally saw the elevator and noticed it was open
• the speaker came upon the elevator and found it open

Both are natural.

A rough Levantine pronunciation would be:

lamma wṣelna ʿaṭ-ṭābeʾ it-tāni, sheft il-maṣʿad maftūḥ

A few notes:

• لما → lamma
• وصلنا → often something like wṣelna or wosalna, depending on region
• عالطابق → sounds like ʿaṭ-ṭābeʾ
• التاني → it-tāni
• شفت → roughly sheft
• مفتوح → maftūḥ

Pronunciation varies a bit across Levantine dialects, but this gives you a good general idea.