سألت موظف الاستقبال عن قاعة الاجتماع، وقاللي وين هي من دون ما يطلع من مكتبه.

سألت means I asked.

It is the past tense of سأل (to ask). In Arabic, the subject can be built into the verb itself, so سألت already tells you the subject is I.

• سألت = I asked
• سأل = he asked
• سألتَ / سألتِ = you asked (masc./fem., depending on context and pronunciation)

So the sentence starts with I asked...

This is an idafa construction, often called a possessive or noun-link construction.

موظف الاستقبال literally means something like:

• employee of the reception
• more naturally: the receptionist / reception employee

In an idafa:

• the first noun usually does not take ال
• the second noun often does, if it is definite

So:

• موظف = employee
• الاستقبال = the reception/front desk
• موظف الاستقبال = the reception employee / receptionist

This is very common in Arabic:

• باب البيت = the door of the house
• قاعة الاجتماع = the meeting hall/room

Here, عن means about.

So:

• سألت موظف الاستقبال عن قاعة الاجتماع = I asked the receptionist about the meeting room

With سأل, Arabic often uses عن when you are asking about something.

Compare:

• سألتُه عن المكان = I asked him about the place
• سألتُه عن الوقت = I asked him about the time

In some contexts, Arabic can also use سأل + person + object directly, but عن is very common and natural when the meaning is ask about.

Yes, exactly. قاعة الاجتماع is also an idafa.

• قاعة = hall / room
• الاجتماع = the meeting
• قاعة الاجتماع = the meeting room / meeting hall

Literally it is hall of the meeting, but in English we naturally say the meeting room.

This matters later in the sentence, because قاعة is a feminine noun, and that is why the pronoun later is هي.

وقاللي means and he told me.

It breaks down like this:

• و = and
• قال = he said / he told
• لي = to me

So literally:

• وقال لي = and he said to me / and he told me

In informal Levantine writing, these are often written together as وقاللي to reflect natural speech.

In pronunciation, it often sounds like:

• w-’alli
• or w qalli, depending on region and spelling style

In spoken Levantine, قاللي is extremely common for he told me / he said to me.

Because this is Levantine Arabic, and وين is the normal everyday word for where.

• وين = where (Levantine, colloquial)
• أين = where (Modern Standard Arabic, formal)

So:

• وين هي؟ = Where is it?
• أين هي؟ = Where is it? (formal/standard)

If you are learning Levantine, وين is the form you will hear all the time in conversation.

هي means it / she, and here it refers to قاعة الاجتماع.

Because قاعة is a feminine noun, Arabic uses the feminine pronoun:

• وين هي = where is it?

Literally, it is like saying:

• where is she?

But for feminine nouns in Arabic, that is completely normal. In English we just say it.

So the logic is:

• قاعة الاجتماع = feminine noun
• therefore the pronoun is هي

You might also hear people say وينها in colloquial speech, meaning roughly where is it?, with the pronoun attached.

Because here وين هي is not being used as a direct question from the speaker. It is part of what the receptionist told the speaker.

So the meaning is:

• He told me where it is

not

• He asked, "Where is it?"

This is an embedded question.

English does the same thing:

• direct question: Where is it?
• embedded question: He told me where it is.

Arabic keeps the question word (وين) in the embedded clause, just like English does.

من دون ما means without + a following verb.

So:

• من دون ما يطلع من مكتبه = without leaving his office = without coming out of his office

This pattern is very common in spoken Arabic:

• من دون ما يحكي = without speaking
• من دون ما يسأل = without asking
• من دون ما يوقف = without stopping

You can think of it as a very natural spoken way to say without doing something.

After من دون ما, Arabic commonly uses the present/imperfect verb.

So:

• من دون ما يطلع = without him going out / without him coming out

Even though the whole sentence is in the past overall, this structure still normally uses the present-form verb.

That is very normal in Arabic grammar. It is similar to how English says:

• He answered without leaving his office

where leaving is not a past-tense form either.

Here, يطلع comes from طلع, which can mean things like:

• go out
• come out
• step out
• leave

In this context, يطلع من مكتبه means leave/come out of his office.

مكتبه means his office.

Breakdown:

• مكتب = office / desk
• ـه = his

So:

• مكتبه = his office

This attached pronoun is very common in Arabic:

• كتابه = his book
• بيته = his house
• اسمه = his name

In this sentence, his refers to موظف الاستقبال.

It is best described as a mixed natural sentence: mostly understandable to Arabic speakers generally, with some clearly Levantine features.

The most obviously colloquial/Levantine parts are:

• قاللي instead of a more formal written قال لي
• وين instead of أين

Other parts, like سألت موظف الاستقبال عن قاعة الاجتماع, are quite close to Standard Arabic in vocabulary and structure.

This kind of mixing is very common in real life. Many speakers use mostly standard-looking words but switch into dialect naturally for everyday speech elements.

So for a learner, this is a very useful kind of sentence because it reflects how Arabic is often actually used.