الطرد يلي استلمناه من البريد كان فيه هدية صغيرة للحفلة.

يلي is the Levantine relative word meaning that / which / who.

So in الطرد يلي استلمناه, it links الطرد to the description استلمناه:

• الطرد = the package
• يلي استلمناه = that we received

In Levantine, يلي is extremely common in everyday speech. In Modern Standard Arabic, you would more often see الذي instead.

Because استلمناه includes an object pronoun:

• استلمنا = we received
• استلمناه = we received it

The ending -ه means him/it, and here it refers back to الطرد.

So the breakdown is:

• استلم = received
• -نا = we
• -ه = it

Together: we received it

This is very normal in Arabic relative clauses.

In English, we say:

• the package that we received

In Levantine Arabic, the sentence often keeps a pronoun inside the clause:

• الطرد يلي استلمناه
• literally: the package that we received it

That extra pronoun is called a resumptive pronoun, and it is very common and natural in Arabic.

كان فيه is a very common Levantine way to say there was / there were.

In this sentence:

• كان فيه هدية صغيرة = there was a small gift

Literally, فيه means in it or sometimes functions like there is / there are, depending on context.

Here the structure is basically:

• كان = was
• فيه = there was / in it
• هدية صغيرة = a small gift

Because the sentence is talking about what was inside the package, فيه naturally gives the sense of there was in it.

Good question. In Levantine, with expressions like كان فيه..., speakers very often use كان as a fixed existential pattern, similar to there was.

So:

• كان فيه هدية = there was a gift
• كان فيه مشكلة = there was a problem

Even if the following noun is feminine, كان is very commonly used.

You may also hear كانت فيه in some contexts or dialectal habits, but كان فيه is extremely natural and common.

Here, فيه refers to the package.

So the idea is:

• الطرد ... كان فيه هدية
  = the package ... had a gift in it
  = there was a gift inside it

The -ه in فيه means in it, and that it refers back to الطرد.

للحفلة means for the party.

Breakdown:

• لـ = for
• الحفلة = the party

So:

• هدية صغيرة للحفلة = a small gift for the party

This means the gift was intended for the party, not necessarily physically located at the party.

Because ط is a sun letter, the ل of الـ is not pronounced separately.

So الطرد is pronounced roughly like:

• eṭ-ṭard or aṭ-ṭard, depending on dialect and style

Not al-tard.

Also, ط is an emphatic t, heavier than normal ت.

It varies a bit across Levantine accents. Common pronunciations include:

• yalli
• illi
• sometimes something close to yilli

All of these are normal regional or personal variants. In writing, يلي is a common way to represent this colloquial word.

It can suggest either, depending on context.

• البريد literally relates to mail/post
• من البريد can mean through the mail, from the post, or from the post office

In this sentence, it most naturally means the package was received via the postal system, or from the post office/mail service.

Arabic often builds noun phrases differently from English.

Here the structure is:

• الطرد = the package
• يلي استلمناه من البريد = that we received from the mail
• كان فيه هدية صغيرة للحفلة = had / contained a small gift for the party

So Arabic first names the noun, then adds the relative clause, then continues the main statement.

That is very normal:

• the package that we received...
• الطرد يلي استلمناه...

Not if you want natural everyday Levantine speech.

• يلي = normal colloquial Levantine
• الذي = Modern Standard Arabic / formal Arabic

So:

• الطرد يلي استلمناه = natural spoken Levantine
• الطرد الذي استلمناه = formal, not everyday conversational Levantine

If you are learning spoken Levantine, يلي is the one you want.

Yes, استلم is very common and natural in Levantine for receive.

Examples:

• استلمت الرسالة = I received the message
• استلمنا الطرد = we received the package

Depending on context, it can also carry a slight sense of take delivery of or get handed something, which fits packages very well.

A more formal or Modern Standard Arabic version could be:

• الطرد الذي استلمناه من البريد كان فيه هدية صغيرة للحفلة.

Or even more formally:

• الطرد الذي تسلمناه من البريد كانت فيه هدية صغيرة للحفلة.

But for Levantine conversation, the original sentence is much more natural:

• الطرد يلي استلمناه من البريد كان فيه هدية صغيرة للحفلة.

Yes. That is a very natural way to understand it.

Arabic is using a structure closer to:

• there was a gift in it

But in English, a smooth translation is often:

• the package had a small gift inside
• there was a small gift in the package

Both capture the idea well.