هي عم تقرا قصة بالمكتبة.

عم marks an action as ongoing, like English be + -ing.

So:

• تقرا = reads / read
• عم تقرا = is reading

In other words, عم is the Levantine way to show that the reading is happening now or is in progress.

In Levantine, عم is what makes the action clearly progressive.

• هي تقرا would sound less natural for she is reading right now
• هي عم تقرا clearly means she is reading

A learner can think of عم as one of the main markers of the present continuous in Levantine Arabic.

That is a very common question. In Levantine, the prefix بـ is often used for the present/habitual:

• هي بتقرا = she reads / she is reading depending on context

But with عم, many speakers use the verb without بـ:

• هي عم تقرا

You may also hear هي عم بتقرا in some varieties or from some speakers. Both patterns exist in colloquial speech. The sentence you were given uses the version without بـ.

Arabic often allows the subject pronoun to be omitted, but speakers still use it for clarity or emphasis.

So:

• هي عم تقرا قصة بالمكتبة = She is reading a story in the library
• عم تقرا قصة بالمكتبة can also be possible if the subject is already understood from context

Also, the verb form here can overlap with other persons in colloquial Arabic, so هي helps make it clear that the subject is she.

Although it is written هي, it is often pronounced more like hiyye or hiyyeh in Levantine speech, not just a short English-like hee.

So a learner will often hear:

• هي → hiyye

This is very normal in spoken Levantine.

In informal Levantine writing, the hamza is often not written carefully, especially in everyday text.

So:

• تقرأ is the more careful spelling
• تقرا is a very common casual spelling

They represent the same word here. Colloquial writing is often less strict than Modern Standard Arabic spelling.

It is typically pronounced something like teʔra or tiʔra, depending on the speaker and region.

A few useful points:

• The written ق is often pronounced as a glottal stop (ʔ) by many urban Levantine speakers
• So تقرا may sound like teʔra
• Some speakers keep a real q sound, especially in some regional or social varieties

So the exact pronunciation can vary, but the meaning stays the same.

Arabic does not have an indefinite article like English a/an.

So:

• قصة = a story or just story, depending on context
• القصة = the story

That means قصة by itself naturally gives the meaning a story in this sentence.

بالمكتبة is made of two parts:

• بـ = in / at
• المكتبة = the library

Together:

• بالمكتبة = in the library or at the library

This kind of combination is very common in Arabic. The preposition بـ attaches directly to the noun.

Both can express location, but بـ is extremely common in Levantine for meanings like in, at, or inside depending on context.

So in Levantine:

• بالمكتبة sounds very natural

In more formal Arabic, you might more often see:

• في المكتبة

So this is one of the features that makes the sentence sound clearly colloquial rather than formal.

No, this is Levantine colloquial Arabic.

A more standard version would be closer to:

• هي تقرأ قصة في المكتبة

What makes your sentence colloquial includes:

• عم as a progressive marker
• casual spelling like تقرا
• بالمكتبة instead of the more formal في المكتبة
• no case endings

So this sentence is the kind of Arabic people actually say in everyday Levantine speech.

Yes. Arabic, including Levantine, allows more flexibility than English.

Your sentence:

• هي عم تقرا قصة بالمكتبة

is perfectly natural, but you could also hear variations depending on emphasis, such as leaving out هي if the subject is already understood.

For example:

• عم تقرا قصة بالمكتبة

The original sentence is a very normal and learner-friendly order, though: subject + ongoing marker + verb + object + place.

Usually it means the action is ongoing now or around now.

So it can mean:

• she is literally reading at this moment
• she is in the process of reading during this period

If you want a more habitual meaning like she reads or she usually reads, Levantine often uses:

• هي بتقرا

So عم تقرا is more specifically progressive.

A very natural Levantine version is:

• هي مش عم تقرا قصة بالمكتبة

Here:

• مش = not
• مش عم تقرا = is not reading

This is the common everyday way to negate this kind of sentence in Levantine Arabic.