لما شاف الايميل، رد بعد دقيقة.

Here لما means when.

So لما شاف الايميل = when he saw the email.

In Levantine, لما is very common in everyday speech for introducing a time clause:

• لما وصل، اتصل فيي = When he arrived, he called me
• لما سمعت الخبر، انصدمت = When I heard the news, I was shocked

In this sentence, it connects the first action (seeing the email) to the second action (replying).

Because Arabic verbs already include the subject.

• شاف = he saw
• رد = he replied

So Arabic often does not need a separate pronoun like هو.

If you said هو شاف الايميل، ورد بعد دقيقة, that would still be understandable, but the هو is usually unnecessary unless you want emphasis or contrast.

شاف is the normal colloquial Levantine word for saw / to see in everyday speech.

• شاف = colloquial Levantine
• رأى = more formal / MSA

So in conversation, a Levantine speaker would naturally say:

• شاف not
• رأى

This is one of the most common differences between spoken Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic.

الايميل means the email.

The word ايميل is a borrowed word from English email, and Arabic can treat borrowed nouns like normal nouns. That means they can take the definite article الـ.

So:

• ايميل = an email / email
• الايميل = the email

In this sentence, it refers to a specific email, so الـ makes sense.

You may also see slight spelling variation with borrowed words, but الايميل is very common and natural.

رد here means he replied / he responded.

In context, it means he replied to the email.

So:

• رد بعد دقيقة = he replied a minute later / he responded after a minute

In Levantine, رد is a very common verb for replying:

• رد عليّ = he replied to me
• ليش ما رديت؟ = Why didn’t you reply?

In this sentence, the object is understood from context: he replied to the email.

It is literally after a minute, but in English the natural translation is often a minute later.

• بعد = after
• دقيقة = a minute / one minute

So رد بعد دقيقة is literally:

• He replied after a minute

But natural English often says:

• He replied a minute later

Both mean the same thing here.

Because the meaning is after a minute, not after the specific minute.

Arabic often uses an indefinite singular noun after words like بعد when talking about an amount of time:

• بعد دقيقة = after a minute
• بعد ساعة = after an hour
• بعد يومين = after two days

If you said بعد الدقيقة, that would sound like after the minute, which is not the intended meaning here.

A common Levantine-style pronunciation would be something like:

Lamma shaaf il-email, radd ba3d da2ee2a.

A few notes:

• لما = lamma
• شاف = shaaf
• الايميل is often pronounced il-email or something close, depending on the speaker
• رد may sound like radd
• دقيقة is often pronounced da2ee2a (the 2 represents a glottal stop)

Pronunciation varies a bit by country and city, but this gives you a good Levantine-style reading.

It is definitely understandable across the Arabic-speaking world, but it sounds colloquial because of شاف.

Why:

• شاف is spoken Arabic, not formal MSA
• الايميل is a modern borrowed word used widely
• the overall structure is very natural in everyday speech

A more formal MSA version would be something like:

• عندما رأى البريد الإلكتروني، رد بعد دقيقة

So your original sentence is best understood as everyday spoken Arabic, including Levantine.

You would change the verbs to feminine singular:

• لما شافت الايميل، ردّت بعد دقيقة.

That means:

• When she saw the email, she replied a minute later.

Compare:

• شاف = he saw
• شافت = she saw
• رد = he replied
• ردّت = she replied

So the subject is shown through the verb form.

Yes, exactly.

The sentence tells a short sequence:

1. He saw the email
2. He replied a minute later

Both verbs are in the past, and لما helps link them in time.

So this kind of structure is very common in storytelling and narration:

• لما وصل، قعد

• When he arrived, he sat down

• لما سمع الخبر، اتصل فيها
• When he heard the news, he called her

Your sentence works in the same way.