Questions & Answers about كنا بدنا نعزم الجارة، بس كانت مشغولة مع بنتها.
What does each part of the sentence mean grammatically?
A natural breakdown is:
- كنا = we were
- بدنا = we wanted / we were wanting
- نعزم = to invite
- الجارة = the female neighbor
- بس = but
- كانت = she was
- مشغولة = busy
- مع بنتها = with her daughter
So the structure is roughly:
- كنا بدنا نعزم الجارة = We wanted to invite the neighbor
- بس كانت مشغولة مع بنتها = but she was busy with her daughter
This is very natural everyday Levantine Arabic.
Why does the sentence say كنا بدنا? Isn’t that like saying we were wanted?
It may look strange if you translate word by word, but كنا بدنا is a very common Levantine way to say we wanted or we were planning/intending to.
Here is the idea:
- بدنا by itself means we want
- كنا بدنا puts that wanting in the past: we wanted
So:
- بدنا نعزمها = we want to invite her
- كنا بدنا نعزمها = we wanted to invite her
English uses wanted as one word, but Levantine often expresses this with كان + a present-time expression.
What exactly is بدنا?