اول ما اجت الكهربا، اشتغل المكيف.

أول ما is a very common Levantine way to say as soon as, when, or the moment that.

So in this sentence, أول ما اجت الكهربا means:

• as soon as the electricity came
• or more naturally in English, when the power came back

It does not literally mean the first thing that... here, even though أول by itself often means first.

Because this sentence is in Levantine Arabic, not Modern Standard Arabic.

• Levantine: اجت
• MSA: جاءت

Both mean she came or it came (feminine).

In spoken Levantine, many verbs look shorter and simpler than in MSA. So اجت الكهربا is the natural everyday spoken form for the electricity came / returned.

You may also see it written as إجت. In informal writing, spelling can vary.

Because الكهربا is treated as a feminine noun.

So the verb agrees with it:

• اجا = he/it came (masculine)
• اجت = she/it came (feminine)

Since الكهربا is feminine, speakers say اجت الكهربا.

This is very normal in Arabic: even inanimate nouns can be grammatically masculine or feminine, and the verb usually agrees with them.

In this sentence, الكهربا means the electricity, but in natural English the best translation is often the power.

So اجت الكهربا usually means:

• the electricity came back
• the power came back
• the power returned

In real-life usage, people often say this when there has been a power cut.

Also note that Levantine often says الكهربا instead of the more formal الكهرباء.

That is just how the expression works in context.

In English, we also often say things like:

• The power came back
• The lights came back on

Arabic uses came in a similar way. When speakers say اجت الكهربا, they usually mean the electricity was off before, and now it has returned.

So the idea of back is often understood from the situation, even if it is not stated explicitly in the Arabic sentence.

Here اشتغل means started working, turned on, or began to operate.

So اشتغل المكيف means:

• the air conditioner started working
• the AC turned on

The basic idea of اشتغل in Levantine is to work / function / operate.

For example:

• السيارة ما عم تشتغل = The car isn’t starting / isn’t working
• التلفون اشتغل = The phone started working

So in your sentence, once the electricity came back, the AC began functioning again.

These are two different meanings.

• اشتغل = it worked / it started working / it turned on
• شغّل = he turned on something or he operated something

So:

• اشتغل المكيف = the AC turned on / started working
• شغّل المكيف = someone turned on the AC

In your sentence, the subject is المكيف, so the meaning is that the AC itself started working once the power returned.

Because Arabic very often allows and prefers verb-first word order, especially in narrative sentences.

So اشتغل المكيف is a normal Arabic structure:

• اشتغل = the verb
• المكيف = the subject

A more English-like order would be المكيف اشتغل, and that is also possible in spoken Arabic, but it can sound slightly different in emphasis depending on context.

In short:

• اشتغل المكيف = very natural
• المكيف اشتغل = also possible, often with more focus on the AC

Yes. المكيف means the air conditioner or the AC.

It comes from a root related to air conditioning / cooling, and in everyday Levantine it is the normal word for an AC unit.

So:

• المكيف خربان = The AC is broken
• طفّي المكيف = Turn off the AC
• اشتغل المكيف = The AC started working / turned on

A common Levantine pronunciation would be:

awwal ma ijit il-kahraba, ishtaghal il-mkayyef

A few notes:

• أول sounds like awwal
• اجت is often pronounced ijit or ejit, depending on region
• الكهربا sounds roughly like il-kahraba
• اشتغل sounds like ishtaghal
• المكيف is often pronounced il-mkayyef

Pronunciation varies by country and city, so you may hear small differences.

Yes, this sentence is clearly colloquial Levantine.

A more formal MSA version would be something like:

عندما جاءت الكهرباء، اشتغّل المكيّف
or
ما إن عادت الكهرباء حتى اشتغل المكيّف

Key differences:

• اجت → جاءت
• الكهربا → الكهرباء
• أول ما is colloquial and very common in speech

So the original sentence sounds natural and everyday, while the MSA versions sound more formal or written.