قبل ما نطلع عالسوق، امي كتبت لستة صغيرة عالتلفون.

In Levantine, قبل ما + verb is a very common way to say before someone does something.

So قبل ما نطلع is the normal colloquial pattern for before we head out / before we go out.

Here, ما is not negation. It does not mean not. It is just part of the structure that introduces the following verb clause.

A good way to learn it is as one chunk:

قبل ما = before

Because the Levantine imperfect verb form often covers both present and future, depending on context.

After قبل ما, Arabic works a lot like English:

• before we go out
• before we leave

English also uses a present-form verb there, even though the action is still future from the speaker’s point of view.

So نطلع here does not mean we are going out right now. It means when we go out / before we go out.

Yes, you could say نروح in many contexts, but there is a nuance.

نطلع from طلع can mean:

• go out
• leave
• head out

In this sentence, it suggests going out from where we are now, probably leaving the house and heading to the market.

نروح is more general: go.

So:

• قبل ما نطلع عالسوق = before we head out to the market
• قبل ما نروح عالسوق = before we go to the market

Both are possible, but نطلع gives a stronger sense of going out / heading out.

Because in spoken Levantine, على is very often shortened to عَ.

So:

• على السوق becomes عَ السوق
• and in writing this is often shown as عالسوق

This is extremely common in colloquial Arabic.

You will see the same pattern in words like:

• عالبيت = to/on the house, at the house
• عالجامعة = to the university
• عالطريق = on the road / on the way

Also, in pronunciation, the ال of السوق blends with the س, so it is pronounced more like عَسّوق than a careful letter-by-letter عَل السوق.

Great question. In normal Arabic spelling, short vowels are usually not written, so كتبت can represent different spoken forms.

In speech:

• katabet = she wrote
• katabt = I wrote

Both are written كتبت without vowel marks.

In this sentence, the subject is امي = my mother, so the only reading that fits is she wrote.

This also matches the grammar: mother is feminine singular, so the verb is 3rd person feminine singular.

امي means my mother / my mom.

It is the word for mother plus the suffix -ي, which means my.

So:

• أم / إم = mother
• أمي / إمي = my mother

In informal Levantine writing, people often leave out hamza spelling details, so امي is very common online and in texting.

You may also see:

• أمي
• إمي
• امي

All of these can point to the same colloquial word, depending on the writer’s habits.

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

So a bare noun can already mean a:

• لستة = a list
• لستة صغيرة = a small list

If the noun were definite, Arabic would normally mark that with ال:

• اللستة الصغيرة = the small list

So in Arabic, the difference between a list and the list is usually shown by definiteness on the noun, not by adding a separate word like a.

It is a very common colloquial borrowing.

In everyday Levantine, لستة means list, and many speakers use it naturally in speech.

It is not the most formal native Arabic word. In more formal Arabic, you might see:

• قائمة
• لائحة

But in spoken Levantine, لستة is very normal and natural.

Spelling can vary too, for example:

• لستة
• ليستة

because people often spell loanwords in slightly different ways.

In Arabic, adjectives usually come after the noun, not before it.

So:

• لستة صغيرة = a small list

not the other way around.

Also, the adjective has to agree with the noun in gender. لستة is treated as feminine, so the adjective is also feminine:

• صغيرة = feminine
• not صغير

This is standard Arabic adjective agreement:

• noun first
• adjective second
• matching gender and number

Also, with something like list, small can sound like small / little / short depending on context.

Here, عالتلفون most likely means on the phone, as in on the device, not on paper.

So it suggests something like:

• in the Notes app
• typed into the phone
• saved on the phone

In Levantine, على التلفون is very natural for that idea.

Compare:

• عالتلفون = on the phone / on the device
• بالتلفون = by phone / over the phone
• في التلفون = in the phone

Depending on context, speakers may use more than one of these, but in this sentence عالتلفون strongly sounds like written on the phone.

A rough pronunciation would be:

'abl ma netlaʿ ʿas-sūʔ, immi katabet liste zghīre ʿat-telefon.

A few useful notes:

• قبل is often pronounced 'abl in many urban Levantine accents
• نطلع is roughly netlaʿ
• عالسوق is pronounced more like ʿas-sūʔ
• صغيرة in Levantine often sounds like zghīre
• عالتلفون is pronounced more like ʿat-telefon

Why those changes?

Because the ال in السوق and التلفون assimilates to the following consonant:

• السوق → as-sūʔ
• التلفون → at-telefon

So the written form and the spoken form are related, but not always letter-for-letter identical.