دقينا جرس الجارة، بس ما فتحت الباب.

A natural pronunciation is:

daʔʔeena jaras il-jaara, bas ma fataḥet il-baab.

A few notes:

• دقّينا is often pronounced daʔʔeena in many urban Levantine accents because ق often becomes a glottal stop.
• In some other Levantine varieties, you may hear daqqeena.
• الـ is usually pronounced il- or el- in Levantine, not classical al-.

Word by word:

• دقّينا = daʔʔeena / daqqeena
• جرس = jaras
• الجارة = il-jaara
• بس = bas
• ما فتحت = ma fataḥet
• الباب = il-baab

دقّينا is the past tense of the verb دقّ, and here it means we rang or literally we struck/knocked.

How it is built:

• دقّ = the basic verb
• -نا = we

So:

• دقّيت = I rang / knocked
• دقّينا = we rang / knocked

With جرس after it, the meaning becomes specifically we rang the bell.

So دقّينا جرس... is a very natural way to say we rang ...'s bell.

This is the Arabic iḍaafa structure, often called the construct phrase.

In Arabic, possession is usually shown by putting two nouns together:

• جرس الجارة
• literally: bell the-neighbor
• meaning: the neighbor's bell or the bell of the neighbor

So Arabic does not need a separate word like of, and it does not use an apostrophe 's.

This pattern is extremely common:

• باب البيت = the house door / the house's door
• مفتاح السيارة = the car key
• صوت الولد = the boy's voice

Because in an iḍaafa phrase, the first noun usually does not take الـ.

So:

• جرس الجارة = the neighbor's bell

Even though جرس does not have الـ, the whole phrase is still definite because the second noun, الجارة, is definite.

This is one of the most important patterns in Arabic:

• كتاب الأستاذ = the teacher's book
• not الكتاب الأستاذ

So جرس الجارة is correct, and الجرس الجارة would be wrong.

الجارة is feminine, so it means the female neighbor.

Compare:

• الجار = the male neighbor
• الجارة = the female neighbor

That matters because later the verb فتحت refers back to this feminine person.

If the neighbor were male, the sentence would be:

• دقّينا جرس الجار، بس ما فتح الباب.

In Levantine Arabic, بس very commonly means but in everyday speech.

So here:

• ... بس ما فتحت الباب
• = ... but she didn’t open the door

You are also right that لكن means but, but:

• لكن is more formal or more associated with Standard Arabic
• بس is extremely common in spoken Levantine

Also, بس can mean other things in other contexts, such as:

• only
• enough / stop

But in this sentence, it clearly means but.

In Levantine Arabic, a very common way to negate the past tense is:

• ما + past verb

So:

• فتحت = she opened
• ما فتحت = she didn’t open

This is much simpler than some Standard Arabic patterns learners may know.

Examples:

• أكل = he ate

• ما أكل = he didn’t eat

• رحنا = we went
• ما رحنا = we didn’t go

So in your sentence:

• بس ما فتحت الباب
• = but she didn’t open the door

This is a great question because Arabic spelling without vowels can hide some distinctions.

In actual Levantine pronunciation, this is understood as:

• fataḥet = she opened

The 3rd person feminine singular in the past often has that extra vowel in speech.

Compare:

• فتحت pronounced fataḥet = she opened
• فتحت pronounced fataḥt = I opened or you (masculine) opened, depending on context

So in writing, the form can look the same, but in speech and context it becomes clear.

Here, because the sentence already mentioned الجارة and because the meaning is about the neighbor not opening the door, the listener understands فتحت as she opened.

If you wanted to make it extra explicit, you could say:

• بس الجارة ما فتحت الباب
• or بس هي ما فتحت الباب

Because this is a specific, understood door: the door of the neighbor's home.

Arabic often uses the definite article when the object is obvious from context, just like English often says the door rather than a door.

So:

• فتحت الباب = she opened the door

That sounds natural because there is one relevant door in the situation.

If you said فتحت باب, it would sound more like she opened a door, which is less natural in this context.

Because Arabic often drops subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear.

So instead of saying:

• هي ما فتحت الباب

it is very normal to say simply:

• ما فتحت الباب

The subject is understood from:

• the verb form
• the previous context
• the fact that الجارة was just mentioned

This is very common in Arabic and is one reason Arabic sentences can sound shorter than English ones.

This sentence is natural, but there are several other natural Levantine options depending on exactly what you want to emphasize.

Some alternatives:

• رنّينا جرس الجارة، بس ما فتحت الباب.
  More directly we rang the neighbor's bell

• كبسنا جرس الجارة، بس ما فتحت الباب.
  Often used for pressed the doorbell

• دقّينا عباب الجارة، بس ما فتحت.
  This means we knocked on the neighbor's door, not rang the bell

So دقّينا جرس الجارة is fine and natural, but spoken Levantine gives you a few everyday choices depending on whether you mean:

• rang
• pressed
• knocked