هي لا عم تضحك ولا عم تبكي، بس عم تسمع موسيقى.

Because in Levantine Arabic, the 3rd person feminine singular verb in the imperfect often takes تـ.

So with هي (she), you get:

• تضحك = she laughs / she is laughing
• تبكي = she cries / she is crying
• تسمع = she hears / she is listening

This can feel strange to English speakers because تـ may look like a you form at first, but in Arabic it can mark different persons depending on context. Here, since the subject is هي, the meaning is clearly she.

عم marks an action as in progress, so it often corresponds to the English be + -ing form.

So:

• عم تضحك = she is laughing
• عم تبكي = she is crying
• عم تسمع = she is listening

Without عم, the verb can sound more general, like a habitual or simple present meaning, depending on the dialect and context. With عم, the sentence strongly describes what is happening right now.

In this sentence, repeating عم with each verb is the most natural and clearest way to say it:

• لا عم تضحك ولا عم تبكي، بس عم تسمع موسيقى

That structure neatly matches English she’s neither laughing nor crying, but listening to music.

Sometimes in casual speech, people may reduce or reorganize repeated elements, but for learners, it is best to understand and use the repeated عم here. It clearly attaches to each verb.

لا ... ولا ... means neither ... nor ... in this sentence.

So:

• لا عم تضحك ولا عم تبكي = she is neither laughing nor crying

This is a very common pattern in Arabic for linking two negative alternatives.

A useful way to remember it:

• first لا = not
• ولا = and not / nor

So the whole pattern gives the idea of not this and not that.

Because this sentence is using the fixed correlative pattern لا ... ولا ... for neither ... nor ....

Even though Levantine often uses مو or مش for negation in other contexts, here لا ... ولا ... is the natural structure.

Compare:

• مو عم تضحك = she isn’t laughing
• لا عم تضحك ولا عم تبكي = she’s neither laughing nor crying

So لا ... ولا ... is not just ordinary negation; it is a specific paired structure.

Here بس means but.

So:

• بس عم تسمع موسيقى = but she is listening to music

In Levantine, بس is very common and can mean different things depending on context, such as:

• but
• only
• just

In this sentence, the meaning is clearly but, because it contrasts with the previous negative part.

Yes, very often it can be omitted in Levantine Arabic, because the verb already shows who the subject is.

So these can both work:

• هي لا عم تضحك ولا عم تبكي، بس عم تسمع موسيقى
• لا عم تضحك ولا عم تبكي، بس عم تسمع موسيقى

The version with هي is more explicit. It may be used for clarity, emphasis, or contrast.

For example, if you are specifically talking about her, using هي helps highlight that.

Because Arabic does not usually use a separate verb equivalent to English is in the present tense.

In English, you say:

• She is laughing

In Levantine Arabic, the idea of is is built into the structure:

• هي عم تضحك

So Arabic does not need a separate present-tense is here.

Literally, سمع is related to hearing, but in everyday Levantine, عم تسمع موسيقى is a very normal way to say she is listening to music.

So in context:

• تسمع موسيقى = listen to music

This is a good reminder that direct word-for-word translation is not always the best way to understand natural usage.

Because here it means music in a general, indefinite sense.

So:

• عم تسمع موسيقى = she is listening to music

This is similar to English, where we usually say listening to music, not listening to the music, unless we mean specific music already known in the conversation.

If you wanted to refer to specific music, you might use الموسيقى depending on context.

The sentence starts with the subject, then gives two negative progressive verbs, then a contrasting phrase:

• هي = she
• لا عم تضحك ولا عم تبكي = neither laughing nor crying
• بس عم تسمع موسيقى = but listening to music

So the overall structure is:

subject + neither X nor Y + but Z

This is a very natural spoken pattern in Levantine.

A rough pronunciation guide would be:

hiyye la ʿam tedhak wala ʿam tebke, bas ʿam tesmaʿ musi2a

A few notes:

• هي is often pronounced hiyye
• عم has the consonant ʿayn, which English does not have
• تضحك is roughly tedhak
• تبكي is roughly tebke
• تسمع is roughly tesmaʿ
• موسيقى is roughly musi2a or musi’a, depending on how you write the stop

The most important thing for learners is to hear native audio, because sounds like ʿayn and some of the vowel qualities are hard to learn from English spelling alone.

Yes, this sentence is feminine because of هي and the verb forms.

For he, you would say:

• هو لا عم يضحك ولا عم يبكي، بس عم يسمع موسيقى.

Notice the change from تـ to يـ:

• هي ... تضحك / تبكي / تسمع
• هو ... يضحك / يبكي / يسمع

So this sentence is a useful example of how Arabic marks gender in the verb.

Usually, with عم, the main sense is an action happening at the moment or currently in progress.

So the sentence most naturally means she is currently not laughing or crying, but listening to music.

Depending on context, it could also describe what she is doing in a particular situation or scene, not necessarily this exact second. But the central idea is still ongoing action, not a general habit.