امي استعملت مكنسة الكهربا قبل ما يجو الضيوف.

A rough pronunciation is:

ʾimmi staʿmalet maknset il-kahraba ʾabl ma yiju ḍ-ḍyuf

A few notes:

• امي = ʾimmi / emmi
• استعملت is often pronounced staʿmalet or istaʿmalet, depending on the speaker
• مكنسة الكهربا often sounds like maknset il-kahraba
• قبل ما = ʾabl ma or qabl ma, depending on dialect/background
• الضيوف is pronounced with assimilation of ال: aḍ-ḍyūf / ḍ-ḍyuf

In casual writing, spelling is often loose, so you may see small variations.

امي means my mother.

It comes from:

• أم = mother
• أمي = my mother

In informal Arabic writing, especially online or in texting, people often leave out the hamza, so أمي may be written as امي. Both represent the same word here.

So this is not just mother in a general sense. It specifically means my mother / my mom.

Because the subject is she: my mother.

In the past tense, Levantine Arabic marks 3rd person feminine singular with -et / -it / -at depending on pronunciation. So:

• استعمل = he used
• استعملت = she used

Since امي is feminine, the verb has to match it.

Yes, استعملت is natural and means used.

But in everyday Levantine, speakers might also choose other verbs depending on what they want to emphasize:

• استعملت مكنسة الكهربا = she used the vacuum cleaner
• شغّلت المكنسة = she turned on the vacuum
• كنست = she vacuumed / swept, depending on context

So the sentence is good and natural, but it is not the only way to say the idea.

Literally, it is something like the electricity broom/sweeper.

In normal usage, it means vacuum cleaner.

Breakdown:

• مكنسة = broom / sweeper / vacuum
• الكهربا = electricity

So the phrase is a common colloquial way to say vacuum cleaner in Levantine.

This is because the phrase works like an iḍāfa-type structure, or noun linking construction.

In Arabic, when two nouns are linked like X of Y, the first noun usually does not take الـ. So:

• مكنسة الكهربا = the electricity’s vacuum / the electric vacuum cleaner

Even though مكنسة does not have الـ, the whole phrase can still be definite because the second part is definite: الكهربا.

This is very normal in colloquial Arabic.

Compare:

• Levantine: مكنسة الكهربا
• More formal / MSA-style: المكنسة الكهربائية

Because this is colloquial Levantine, not formal Standard Arabic.

• الكهرباء is the Standard Arabic noun electricity
• الكهربا is the common colloquial Levantine form
• الكهربائية is the adjective electric / electrical in Standard Arabic

So in Levantine, people often say:

• مكنسة الكهربا
• not the more formal المكنسة الكهربائية

This is one of the most noticeable differences between spoken dialect and Standard Arabic.

قبل ما is a very common Levantine pattern meaning before when followed by a verb.

So:

• قبل ما يجو الضيوف = before the guests come / before the guests arrived

In natural English, we usually translate it here as before the guests came or before the guests arrived, even though Arabic uses the imperfect verb after قبل ما.

This pattern is extremely common in spoken Arabic:

• قبل ما نام = before I sleep
• قبل ما تروح = before you go
• قبل ما يبلش = before he starts

يجو is the colloquial 3rd person plural imperfect form of to come.

Here it means they come, referring to the guests.

You may also see it written as:

• يجوا
• ييجوا

These are just different informal spelling habits for the same spoken form.

In Levantine, the verb to come is often:

• past: إجا = he came
• imperfect: يجي = he comes
• plural imperfect: يجوا / يجو = they come

So قبل ما يجو الضيوف literally uses before the guests come, but in English the natural translation is often before the guests came/arrived.

Not necessarily.

Arabic often uses the imperfect after expressions like قبل ما because the action is viewed as something that had not happened yet at that point in time.

So the timeline is:

1. Mother used the vacuum
2. Then the guests came

From the perspective of action 1, the guests were still about to come, so Arabic naturally says:

• قبل ما يجو الضيوف

Even though English usually prefers a past form in translation:

• before the guests came

So this is a grammar difference between Arabic and English, not a mistake.

The word الضيوف is pronounced with sun-letter assimilation.

Because ض is a sun letter, the ل of الـ is not pronounced separately. So instead of saying something like al-dyuf, speakers say something closer to:

aḍ-ḍyuf

This is completely normal Arabic pronunciation. In other words:

• written: الضيوف
• pronounced: aḍ-ḍyuf

The sentence is natural as written, but Arabic word order is flexible.

This version starts with the subject:

• امي استعملت مكنسة الكهربا قبل ما يجو الضيوف

You could also say:

• استعملت امي مكنسة الكهربا قبل ما يجو الضيوف

Both are possible. Starting with امي feels very natural in conversation.

You could also move the time phrase for emphasis, for example:

• قبل ما يجو الضيوف، امي استعملت مكنسة الكهربا

So the basic meaning stays the same, but the emphasis can shift depending on word order.