امي كانت زعلانة، بس انبسطت لما اجت صديقتها.

My mother was upset, but she cheered up when her friend came.

Breakdown of امي كانت زعلانة، بس انبسطت لما اجت صديقتها.

• ي: my
• صديق: friend
• بس: but
• ام: mother

Questions & Answers about امي كانت زعلانة، بس انبسطت لما اجت صديقتها.

Is this sentence in Modern Standard Arabic or in Levantine Arabic?

It’s Levantine colloquial Arabic, not formal MSA.

A more natural Levantine-style spelling would often be:

إمّي كانت زعلانة، بس انبسطت لمّا إجت صديقتها.

Some clues that it’s dialect:

• بس for but
• انبسطت for became happy / was pleased
• إجت / اجت for she came

In MSA, the sentence would be phrased differently, for example:

• كانت أمي منزعجة، لكنها فرحت عندما جاءت صديقتها.

How do I pronounce the sentence?

A helpful pronunciation is:

immi kaanet za‘laane, bas inbasatet lamma ijet sadi’ta

A more natural Levantine pronunciation might sound like:

immi kānet za‘lāne, bas inbasaṭat lamma ijet ṣadī’ta

A few notes:

• امي is usually pronounced immi in Levantine.
• زعلانة sounds like za‘laane.
• اجت / إجت is typically ijet.
• صديقتها is roughly sadi’ta or ṣadī’ta-ha, depending on how clearly someone pronounces the ending.

Why is كانت used here?