القطة هربت لما شافت الكلب راكض بالحديقة.

Because the subject القطة is feminine singular.

In Levantine Arabic, a past-tense verb agrees with its subject. For a she/it subject, you usually get a feminine ending written as -ت.

So:

• هرب = he ran away
• هربت = she ran away

And:

• شاف = he saw
• شافت = she saw

Since القطة is grammatically feminine, both verbs appear in the feminine form.

The noun قطة means cat and is grammatically feminine in Arabic. Many animal nouns can be grammatically masculine or feminine depending on the exact word used, but قطة is specifically the feminine form.

That is why the sentence uses feminine verb forms with it:

• القطة هربت
• القطة شافت

If the subject were a masculine noun, the verbs would normally be masculine instead.

لما is a very common Levantine word meaning when.

Here it introduces the time clause:

• لما شافت الكلب... = when she saw the dog...

In everyday Levantine, لما is often used in storytelling and narration. It can feel like:

• when
• once
• sometimes even as soon as

So it is a very natural connector in spoken Arabic.

Because this is Levantine Arabic, not Modern Standard Arabic.

In Levantine, the usual verb for to see is:

• شاف / يشوف

So:

• شاف = he saw
• شافت = she saw

In MSA, you would more likely see:

• رأى / رأت

So شافت is exactly the kind of everyday spoken form a learner should expect in Levantine.

راكض is an active participle from the verb ركض meaning to run.

In this sentence, راكض means running or in the middle of running.

So:

• الكلب راكض = the dog is running

This is very common in Levantine. Active participles are often used to describe someone's current state or action in a compact, natural way.

Because in Arabic, especially in the present tense, you often do not need a separate verb meaning is.

So:

• الكلب راكض literally looks like the dog running
• but it naturally means the dog is running

This is normal Arabic sentence structure. The idea of is is understood from context.

If you wanted a past background idea like was running, you might use كان:

• الكلب كان راكض

But in the original sentence, that extra word is not needed.

Yes, absolutely.

You could say:

• القطة هربت لما شافت الكلب عم يركض بالحديقة

That would also be very natural.

The difference is roughly this:

• راكض is a compact descriptive form: running
• عم يركض is a more explicit ongoing-action form: is running

Both are common in Levantine. In many situations, either one would work.

In Levantine, بـ is used very often for meanings like in, at, or inside depending on context.

So:

• بالحديقة = in the garden / in the park

This is simply:

• بـ + الحديقة → بالحديقة

You may also hear في الحديقة, and it is understandable, but بـ is extremely common in spoken Levantine and often sounds more natural in everyday speech.

Because the speaker is referring to specific things:

• the cat
• the dog
• the garden/park

The definite article in Arabic is الـ, like English the.

So:

• قطة = a cat

• القطة = the cat

• كلب = a dog

• الكلب = the dog

• حديقة = a garden
• الحديقة = the garden

In short, the sentence is talking about identifiable things, not just any cat or any dog.

It naturally describes the dog.

That is because راكض comes right after الكلب, so the normal reading is:

• شافت الكلب راكض بالحديقة = she saw the dog running in the garden

So the cat is the one who saw, and the dog is the one who was running.

If a speaker wanted to make that extra explicit, they could say:

• لما شافت الكلب وهو راكض بالحديقة

But the original sentence is already natural and clear.

The word order is flexible to some extent.

The original sentence:

• القطة هربت لما شافت الكلب راكض بالحديقة

is perfectly natural.

But you could also hear things like:

• لما شافت القطة الكلب راكض بالحديقة، هربت
• القطة لما شافت الكلب راكض بالحديقة هربت

The exact order can shift depending on emphasis and style. Arabic often allows more flexibility than English, as long as the relationships between the words stay clear.

That depends on the region, but many Levantine speakers, especially in urban speech, do not pronounce ق as a strong q sound.

So القطة is often pronounced something like:

• الإطّة
• or with a glottal stop sound before it

In more conservative or regional pronunciations, some speakers may keep ق closer to q.

So the spelling stays القطة, but the pronunciation can vary by area.

A more MSA-like version would be something like:

هربت القطة عندما رأت الكلب يركض في الحديقة

Compared with the Levantine sentence, notice these differences:

• لما instead of عندما
• شافت instead of رأت
• راكض instead of يركض
• بالحديقة instead of في الحديقة

Also, Levantine drops the case endings you would learn in formal Arabic grammar. So the original sentence sounds clearly conversational and dialectal.