اذا ما لقيتي العلبة الكبيرة، شوفي الرف يلي جنب التلاجة.

Because the speaker is talking to one female.

• لقيتي = you found / you find (addressed to a woman)
• شوفي = look / check (imperative, addressed to a woman)

In Levantine, verbs often change depending on the gender of the person being addressed.

For comparison:

• to a man: إذا ما لقيت العلبة الكبيرة، شوف الرف يلي جنب التلاجة
• to a woman: إذا ما لقيتي العلبة الكبيرة، شوفي الرف يلي جنب التلاجة

So the ending here is one of the biggest clues that the sentence is directed at a female.

This is very common in spoken Arabic. After إذا (if), Levantine often uses a form that looks like the past tense, even when the meaning in English is present or future.

So:

• إذا ما لقيتي... literally looks like if you didn’t find
• but in real usage it means if you don’t find... / if you can’t find...

This is normal and idiomatic. English and Arabic just handle conditionals differently.

إذا means if.

ما here is the negation word, so إذا ما means:

• if not
• if you don’t
• if you can’t

In this sentence:

• إذا ما لقيتي = if you don’t find

In Levantine, ما is a very common way to negate verbs.

It comes from the verb شاف / يشوف (to see), but in commands it very often means:

• look
• check
• have a look at

So here شوفي الرف does not mean just see the shelf in a passive way. It means more like:

• check the shelf
• look on the shelf
• have a look at the shelf

That is a very natural use of شوف / شوفي in Levantine.

يلي is the Levantine relative word meaning:

• that
• which
• the one that
• sometimes who

In the sentence:

• الرف يلي جنب التلاجة = the shelf that is next to the fridge

This is one of the most common relative words in Levantine.

You may also see spellings like:

• يلي
• اللي

They are closely related in usage, and both are extremely common in spoken Arabic.

In Arabic, adjectives normally come after the noun.

So:

• العلبة = the box / container
• الكبيرة = the big one

Together:

• العلبة الكبيرة = the big box

Also, the adjective must agree with the noun. Since علبة is feminine and definite, the adjective is also:

• feminine
• definite

That is why you get الكبيرة.

Because in Arabic, when the noun is definite, the adjective usually must also be definite.

So:

• علبة كبيرة = a big box
• العلبة الكبيرة = the big box

Both words take definiteness together in this kind of phrase.

This is different from English, where only the noun gets the.

جنب means beside, next to, or at the side of.

So:

• جنب التلاجة = next to the fridge

It is very common in everyday Levantine.

You may also hear similar expressions like:

• حدّ = next to
• بقرب / قريب من = near

But جنب is one of the most natural everyday choices.

التلاجة is the colloquial Levantine pronunciation of the word for fridge / refrigerator.

In Standard Arabic, the word is:

• الثلاجة

In Levantine speech, the ث sound is often pronounced as ت, so:

• الثلاجة → التلاجة

This kind of sound shift is very common in dialects.

الرف (shelf) is treated as masculine.

That matters when adjectives or pronouns refer back to it.

For example:

• الرف الكبير = the big shelf
• not الرف الكبيرة

Even though there is no adjective attached to الرف in your sentence, learners often want to know the gender of nouns so they can build their own sentences correctly.

Yes. علبة can mean several related things depending on context, such as:

• box
• container
• case
• package
• tin

So العلبة الكبيرة could be:

• the big box
• the big container

The exact English word depends on the situation.

Good question, because the sentence is clearly addressed to one woman.

To one man

• إذا ما لقيت العلبة الكبيرة، شوف الرف يلي جنب التلاجة.

To one woman

• إذا ما لقيتي العلبة الكبيرة، شوفي الرف يلي جنب التلاجة.

To more than one person

A common Levantine version would be:

• إذا ما لقيتوا العلبة الكبيرة، شوفوا الرف يلي جنب التلاجة.

So the biggest changes are in the verb endings.

A natural pronunciation would be something like:

iza ma la2eeti l-3elbe l-kbiire, shuufi r-raff yalli jamb it-tallaaje

A few notes:

• إذا = iza
• لقيتي often sounds like la2eeti or l2eeti
• العلبة is often pronounced l-3elbe
• الكبيرة becomes l-kbiire
• التلاجة sounds like it-tallaaje / et-tallaaje
• الرف may sound like r-raff because the l of الـ assimilates in fast speech

Exact pronunciation varies by region, but this is a useful Levantine-style approximation.

It is clearly everyday spoken Levantine Arabic, not formal Standard Arabic.

Clues include:

• شوفي instead of a Standard Arabic command form
• يلي as the relative word
• التلاجة instead of الثلاجة
• the overall phrasing and verb usage

A more formal Standard Arabic sentence would look different. So this is the kind of Arabic you would hear in daily conversation in the Levant.