اختي كانت ماشية عالرصيف وعم تطلع عالخريطة، فمرت من المفرق وما انتبهت.

Yes, both express an ongoing action, but they do it in slightly different ways.

• كانت ماشية = she was walking
• عم تطلع = she was looking

In Levantine, both patterns are common for past continuous meaning:

• كان/كانت + active participle
• كان/كانت + عم + imperfect verb

So here:

• كانت ماشية uses the active participle ماشية
• عم تطلع uses عم
  • the verb تطلع

Both are very natural. Speakers often mix these structures in the same sentence, just like here.

ماشية is the feminine singular active participle of مشي (to walk).

Because the subject is اختي (my sister), the feminine form is used:

• masculine: ماشي
• feminine: ماشية

So كانت ماشية literally means something like she was in a walking state, which in natural English is she was walking.

In Levantine, تطلع على is a very common way to say look at.

So:

• تطلع عالخريطة = look at the map

This is very natural in spoken Levantine. A learner may know نظر from Standard Arabic, but in everyday Levantine, طلع / يتطلع على is often what people actually say for look at.

Here عم تطلع is feminine because the subject is my sister.

عَـ is the spoken Levantine form of على (on / at / onto, depending on context).

So:

• عالرصيف = على الرصيف = on the sidewalk
• عالخريطة = على الخريطة = at the map / on the map

This contraction is extremely common in speech.

Also notice the الـ of the noun stays there, so:

• على + الرصيف → عالرصيف
• على + الخريطة → عالخريطة

Because the sentence is talking about a specific sidewalk and a specific map.

• الرصيف = the sidewalk
• الخريطة = the map

In context, this feels natural in Arabic. English sometimes uses a where Arabic prefers the, especially when the thing is understood from the situation.

So عم تطلع عالخريطة is naturally looking at the map, not necessarily looking at a map.

مرت means she passed or she went past.

It comes from the verb مرّ (to pass).

Because the subject is feminine singular (my sister), the past form is:

• masculine: مرّ
• feminine: مرّت

The فـ at the beginning means so, then, or and so. It links the result to what came before.

So:

• فمرت من المفرق = so she passed the intersection / so she went past the turn

It gives the sense of consequence: she was walking and looking at the map, so she went past the intersection.

This is a good question because it may feel strange if you expect a direct equivalent of English pass the intersection.

In Levantine, مرّ من... can mean pass by / go past / go through a place.

So:

• مرت من المفرق = she passed by the intersection/junction

The preposition من here is part of the natural Arabic expression. It does not have to match English word-for-word.

Also, المفرق means the junction, the crossroads, or the turn/intersection, depending on context.

انتبه means to notice, to pay attention, or to realize.

So:

• ما انتبهت = she didn’t notice
• or more literally, she wasn’t paying attention / she failed to notice

Again, the -ت ending shows feminine singular past, matching اختي.

This part explains why she passed the intersection: she didn’t notice.

Arabic often does not repeat the subject if it is already clear.

In this sentence, the subject is introduced at the beginning:

• اختي = my sister

After that, the feminine verb forms keep referring back to her:

• كانت = she was
• ماشية = walking
• عم تطلع = she was looking
• مرت = she passed
• انتبهت = she noticed

Because all those forms are feminine singular, it is clear they all refer to my sister.

Both refer to my sister.

• أختي is the more careful spelling with hamza
• اختي is a very common informal spelling in everyday writing

In casual Levantine writing, people often leave out hamzas. So this is normal and not a different word.

A natural Levantine-style transliteration would be:

ikhti kaanet maashiye 3ar-rasiif w 3am tettalla3 3al-khariita, fa marret min il-mafra2 w ma ntabahit

A few notes:

• 3 represents the letter ع
• 2 is sometimes used for ء, though many people omit it in casual transliteration
• tettalla3 may also be written titla3 depending on how narrowly or broadly someone transliterates pronunciation

You may also hear slight pronunciation variation depending on the region.

Yes, it is clearly Levantine spoken Arabic.

A few clues:

• عَـ instead of على
• عم for the progressive
• everyday spoken vocabulary and structure
• omission of hamza in writing, like اختي

A more Standard Arabic-like version would be quite different in style, for example using forms like كانت تمشي على الرصيف وتنظر إلى الخريطة، فمرت بالمفترق ولم تنتبه.

That does not mean the Levantine sentence is incorrect; it is just colloquial, natural spoken Arabic.

Yes, if you see طلع by itself, it can have several meanings in Arabic dialects, such as:

• go up
• come out
• turn out
• look

But the preposition helps a lot here:

• تطلع على = look at

So in عم تطلع عالخريطة, the meaning is clearly she was looking at the map, not she was going up on the map or anything like that.

This is very common in Arabic: the verb + preposition combination determines the meaning.