كنت بدي اتصل بكهربجي كمان، لانه اللمبة بالغرفة عم تطفي وترجع.

كنت بدي literally looks like I was wanting, but in natural English it usually means I wanted to or I was going to.

• كنت = I was
• بدي = I want

So together, كنت بدي اتصل... gives a past intention:

• I wanted to call...
• I was meaning to call...
• I was going to call...

The exact English wording depends on context.

Using كنت بدي pushes the desire/intention into the past.

Compare:

• بدي اتصل بكهربجي = I want to call an electrician
• كنت بدي اتصل بكهربجي = I wanted to call an electrician / I was going to call an electrician

It can also sound a little softer or less direct, as if the speaker is explaining what they had in mind rather than stating a current plan.

Here it is not past tense, even though the spelling may look similar.

After بدي, Levantine usually uses the verb in a non-past form without the usual present-tense بـ prefix.

So:

• بتصل = I call / I am calling
• بدي اتصل = I want to call

In informal writing, short vowels are usually not written, so اتصل here represents something like etteṣel.

Because the verb اتصل normally takes the preposition بـ in Arabic.

So:

• اتصل بفلان = call/contact someone

That is why the sentence says:

• اتصل بكهربجي = call an electrician

This is very normal with this verb.

Yes. كهربجي is a common colloquial Levantine word meaning electrician.

It is more everyday and dialectal than the more formal كهربائي.

The ending ـجي is a common colloquial ending used in job words, especially in spoken Arabic. So كهربجي sounds very natural in conversation.

كمان means also, too, or as well.

So:

• كنت بدي اتصل بكهربجي كمان = I also wanted to call an electrician / I wanted to call an electrician too

Its position is flexible in spoken Arabic, but here it is attached to the idea of calling an electrician too.

Yes. لانه is the colloquial equivalent of because.

In Levantine, you often hear forms like:

• لأنه
• لانو
• لأنو
• لانه

They all represent everyday spoken forms of because. Spelling in dialect writing is not fully standardized, so variation is very common.

بالغرفة means in the room.

It is made of:

• بـ = in
• الغرفة = the room

So:

• اللمبة بالغرفة = the light bulb / lamp in the room

This is a very normal way to attach a location to a noun in Levantine.

عم is a very common Levantine marker for an ongoing action, similar to English is doing or keeps doing, depending on context.

So:

• عم تطفي = is going off / keeps turning off

In this sentence, because the light is repeatedly going off and coming back, English often translates it more naturally as keeps going off or is flickering.

Good question. In Arabic, تـ can mark several different forms, not just you.

Here, اللمبة is a feminine singular noun, so the verb agrees with it in the third person feminine singular:

• هي تطفي = it/she turns off
• اللمبة تطفي = the light turns off

So تطفي here means it goes off, not you turn off.

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

Literally, it means something like:

• it goes off and comes back

With a light, the natural meaning is:

• it turns off and comes back on
• it keeps going off and coming back
• it’s flickering

Arabic often leaves part of that meaning to context. Since the subject is a light, ترجع naturally implies comes back on / starts working again.

Yes, in context it is.

ترجع literally means return or come back, but when talking about a light, electricity, internet, etc., it often means come back on or start working again.

So a speaker does not need to say the full idea explicitly every time. The listener understands it from the situation.

A rough pronunciation could be:

kint biddi اتصل b-kahrabji kamān, la'anno l-lambe bil-ghurfe ʿam titfi w tirjaʿ

Or more smoothly:

kint biddi ettesel b-kahrabji kamān, la'anno l-lambe bil-ghurfe ʿam titfi w tirjaʿ

A few notes:

• كنت often sounds like kint or kənt
• بدي is often biddi
• لمبة is often pronounced lambe
• ترجع is often tirjaʿ

Exact pronunciation varies across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, but this gives a good general Levantine feel.