الولد الصغير هرب لما شاف الكلب قدام البيت.

A common broad transliteration is:

el-walad eṣ-ṣġīr harab lamma šāf el-kalb qdām el-bēt

A few notes:

• الولد = el-walad = the boy
• الصغير = eṣ-ṣġīr = the small / little
• هرب = harab = ran away
• لما = lamma = when
• شاف = šāf = saw
• الكلب = el-kalb = the dog
• قدام البيت = qdām el-bēt = in front of the house

Pronunciation varies a bit by country and city, so you may hear slightly different vowels or consonants.

In Arabic, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• الولد الصغير = literally the boy the-small
• natural English: the small boy

This is completely normal Arabic word order. The noun comes first, then the adjective.

Because in Arabic, adjectives usually match the noun in definiteness.

So if the noun is definite:

• الولد = the boy

then the adjective also becomes definite:

• الصغير = the small

Together:

• الولد الصغير = the small boy

If it were indefinite, you would say:

• ولد صغير = a small boy

So the adjective agrees with the noun not only in gender and number, but also in whether it is definite or indefinite.

This is because of sun-letter assimilation.

The letter ص is a sun letter, so the l sound of ال is not pronounced separately before it. Instead, the next consonant gets emphasized/doubled.

So:

• written: الصغير
• pronounced: eṣ-ṣġīr or something close to that

Compare that with البيت:

• ب is not a sun letter
• so the l stays audible
• البيت = el-bēt

This is a very common feature in Arabic.

Because Arabic verbs already include the subject.

• هرب here means he ran away
• شاف here means he saw

So Arabic often does not need to say هو for he, unless you want extra emphasis or contrast.

This is very normal in Arabic and is one of the first things English speakers notice.

Because the sentence is telling a completed event in the past:

• هرب = he ran away
• شاف = he saw

This is standard storytelling style in Arabic. The sequence is:

1. he saw the dog
2. he ran away

Even though English sometimes uses different ways to tell stories, Arabic commonly uses the past/perfect form for both actions in this kind of sentence.

Here, لما means when.

So:

• هرب لما شاف الكلب = he ran away when he saw the dog

In Levantine Arabic, لما is very commonly used to introduce a time clause like when. It is often followed by a past verb.

Important: لما can have other meanings in other contexts, but in this sentence it clearly means when.

Because شاف is the normal everyday Levantine verb for to see.

• شاف = he saw
• يشوف = he sees / will see

By contrast, رأى is more formal and associated with Modern Standard Arabic.

So in Levantine speech:

• شاف الكلب sounds natural and conversational

This is a good example of how spoken Arabic often uses different vocabulary from formal written Arabic.

قدام البيت means in front of the house.

Breakdown:

• قدام = in front of / before
• البيت = the house

So:

• الكلب قدام البيت = the dog is in front of the house

In this sentence, it tells you where the dog was when the boy saw it.

Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• in front of the house
• outside the house, in front

But the basic idea is location: the dog was positioned in front of the house.

It most naturally describes the dog.

So the usual understanding is:

• the little boy ran away when he saw the dog in front of the house

In other words, the dog was in front of the house.

Could context ever make things less clear? Sometimes, yes. But without extra wording, the most natural reading is that the dog was in front of the house.

It usually means ran away, fled, or escaped, not just plain ran.

So:

• الولد الصغير هرب is stronger than simply the boy ran
• it suggests fear, avoidance, or getting away from something

That fits the rest of the sentence well: he saw the dog and then fled.

A more Modern Standard Arabic version would be something like:

هرب الولد الصغير عندما رأى الكلب أمام البيت.

or

الولد الصغير هرب عندما رأى الكلب أمام البيت.

Main differences:

• لما → عندما for when
• شاف → رأى for saw
• قدام → أمام for in front of

So the sentence you were given is clearly more natural for everyday Levantine speech.

You would remove ال from both the noun and the adjective:

• ولد صغير = a small boy

Compare:

• الولد الصغير = the small boy
• ولد صغير = a small boy

This is an important pattern in Arabic:

• definite noun → definite adjective
• indefinite noun → indefinite adjective

So the adjective follows the noun and matches it.