بالحفلة مبارح انبسطنا كتير لما حكت امي نكتة جديدة.

A common Levantine pronunciation would be:

bil-ḥafle mbāreḥ inbasaṭna ktīr lamma ḥaket immi nukte jdīde

You may also hear small regional differences, such as:

• bel-ḥafle instead of bil-ḥafle
• jdiide / jdīde for جديدة
• immi for أمي

A rough word-by-word pronunciation guide:

• بالحفلة = bil-ḥafle
• مبارح = mbāreḥ
• انبسطنا = inbasaṭna
• كتير = ktīr
• لما = lamma
• حكت = ḥaket
• أمي = immi
• نكتة = nukte
• جديدة = jdīde

بالحفلة literally means at the party or in the party.

It is made of:

• بـ = in / at
• الـ = the
• حفلة = party

So:

• بـ + الحفلة → بالحفلة

In Levantine, بـ is very commonly used for location:

• بالبيت = at home
• بالجامعة = at the university
• بالشغل = at work

So here بالحفلة sets the scene: at the party.

مبارح means yesterday, and in Levantine it is very normal to put time expressions early in the sentence.

So:

• بالحفلة مبارح = at the party yesterday

This order sounds natural because Arabic often starts with background information like:

• place
• time
• context

The sentence could be rearranged in other ways and still be understood, for example:

• مبارح بالحفلة انبسطنا كتير...
• انبسطنا كتير بالحفلة مبارح...

But the original order feels very natural in speech.

انبسطنا means we had fun, we enjoyed ourselves, or we had a great time.

It is built from:

• انبسط = he enjoyed himself / had fun
• ـنا = we

So:

• انبسطنا = we enjoyed ourselves

In everyday Levantine, انبسط is extremely common for talking about having a good time:

• انبسطت = I had fun
• انبسطوا = they had fun
• انبسطنا كتير = we had a lot of fun

It is more colloquial and natural in Levantine than a more formal verb like استمتعنا.

كتير can mean both very and a lot, depending on context.

In this sentence:

• انبسطنا كتير = we had a lot of fun / we enjoyed ourselves a lot

Here it is modifying the whole idea of enjoying, so a lot is the best translation.

Compare:

• هي حلوة كتير = she is very beautiful
• ضحكنا كتير = we laughed a lot
• انبسطنا كتير = we enjoyed ourselves a lot

So the exact English word depends on what كتير is describing.

Here لما means when.

So:

• لما حكت امي نكتة جديدة = when my mother told a new joke

In Levantine, لما is very common for introducing a past event:

• لما إجى = when he came
• لما شفتها = when I saw her
• لما حكت أمي... = when my mother said/told...

It can sometimes overlap with when in English, but its exact nuance depends on context. In this sentence, it clearly introduces the event that caused everyone to have fun.

Because the subject is أمي = my mother, which is feminine.

The verb is:

• حكى = he said / told
• حكت = she said / told

So:

• حكت أمي = my mother said/told

In the past tense, Levantine verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:

• حكى = he said
• حكت = she said
• حكوا = they said

Since أمي is feminine, حكت is the correct form.

In Levantine Arabic, حكى often covers both say and tell, especially in everyday speech.

So:

• حكت نكتة = she told a joke
• حكى معي = he talked with me
• شو حكى؟ = what did he say?

In English, we usually say tell a joke, not say a joke, so the most natural translation here is:

• when my mother told a new joke

Even though the Arabic verb is the same everyday verb used for speaking more generally.

Because this is spoken Levantine Arabic, not formal written Modern Standard Arabic.

In Levantine:

• case endings are not used in normal speech
• words are pronounced in their everyday spoken forms
• أمي is simply my mother

Also, the ending ـي here is the possessive suffix my:

• أم = mother
• أمي = my mother

In Levantine, it is usually pronounced immi, not the more formal-sounding ummī.

Because in Arabic, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• نكتة = a joke
• جديدة = new

Together:

• نكتة جديدة = a new joke

This is the normal Arabic pattern:

• بيت كبير = a big house
• بنت شاطرة = a smart girl
• فكرة حلوة = a nice idea

So the order is the opposite of English:

• English: new joke
• Arabic: joke new

Because نكتة is a feminine noun, and the adjective must agree with it.

So:

• نكتة = feminine
• جديدة = feminine form of new

This is adjective agreement.

Compare:

• كتاب جديد = a new book
• نكتة جديدة = a new joke

Even though joke is not feminine in English, Arabic nouns have grammatical gender, and نكتة is feminine.

The main clause is verbal because the core action is:

• انبسطنا كتير = we had a lot of fun

But the sentence begins with fronted context:

• بالحفلة = at the party
• مبارح = yesterday

So the structure is roughly:

• At the party yesterday, we had a lot of fun when my mother told a new joke.

This kind of ordering is very common in Levantine. Speakers often begin with location and time before getting to the main verb.

Yes. Levantine Arabic allows a lot of flexibility in word order, especially with time and place expressions.

Possible alternatives include:

• مبارح بالحفلة انبسطنا كتير لما حكت أمي نكتة جديدة
• انبسطنا كتير بالحفلة مبارح لما حكت أمي نكتة جديدة
• لما حكت أمي نكتة جديدة، انبسطنا كتير بالحفلة مبارح

These all mean roughly the same thing, but the emphasis changes:

• starting with بالحفلة emphasizes the place
• starting with مبارح emphasizes the time
• starting with لما حكت أمي... emphasizes the event that caused the fun

The original sentence sounds natural and conversational.

Because Arabic often does not need extra helping verbs where English does.

The sentence directly says:

• انبسطنا كتير = we enjoyed ourselves a lot

It does not need something like we were enjoying ourselves unless the speaker specifically wants that tense or nuance.

Also, background details like at the party yesterday can simply be added without any verb like it was:

• بالحفلة مبارح = at the party yesterday

So Arabic is often more direct and compact than English in this kind of sentence.

Yes, very clearly.

Some strong clues are:

• مبارح for yesterday
  In MSA, you would expect أمس
• كتير for very / a lot
  In MSA, often كثيرًا
• حكت in this spoken style
• أمي pronounced colloquially as immi
• the overall spoken word order and vocabulary

A more formal MSA-like version would sound quite different, for example using words like استمتعنا كثيرًا or ألقت أمي نكتة جديدة depending on style.

So this sentence is natural spoken Levantine Arabic.