كان عندي جرح صغير عالركبة، فحطتلي الممرضة ضماد.

Yes — literally, كان عندي is something like there was at me. In Levantine Arabic, that is a very normal way to say I had.

• عندي = I have / at me
• كان عندي = I had / I used to have

So:

• عندي جرح = I have a wound
• كان عندي جرح = I had a wound

This is a very common Arabic structure for possession. Instead of using a verb exactly like English have, Arabic often uses عند + pronoun.

عندي = عند + ـي

• عند = at / with
• ـي = my / me

So عندي literally means at me or with me, but in many contexts it means I have.

Examples:

• عندي سيارة = I have a car
• عندي وقت = I have time
• كان عندي جرح = I had a wound

In Arabic, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• جرح = wound
• صغير = small

Together:

• جرح صغير = a small wound

This is the normal word order in Arabic:

• بيت كبير = a big house
• بنت حلوة = a pretty girl
• جرح صغير = a small wound

Also notice that the adjective agrees with the noun in definiteness and gender/number when needed.

Because جرح is a masculine noun.

So the adjective must also be masculine:

• جرح صغير = a small wound

If the noun were feminine, you would use صغيرة:

• فتحة صغيرة = a small opening
• ركبة صغيرة = a small knee

So here:

• جرح = masculine
• therefore صغير = masculine adjective

عالركبة means on the knee.

It is a contraction of:

• على = on
• الركبة = the knee

So:

• على الركبة → عالركبة

This kind of contraction is very common in Levantine speech.

Other examples:

• عالبيت = to the house / at the house
• عالطاولة = on the table
• عالمدرسة = to school / at school, depending on context

Yes, in natural pronunciation the ل of الـ assimilates before certain letters called sun letters, and ر is one of them.

So الركبة is pronounced more like:

• ar-rikbe
• and عالركبة sounds like ʿar-rikbe / 3ar-rikbe

In writing, you still see الركبة, but in speech the l is absorbed into the r sound.

So a learner may read:

• على الركبة

but hear:

• ʿar-rikbe

That is normal.

فـ here means so, then, or and so.

It connects the two parts of the sentence:

• كان عندي جرح صغير عالركبة
• فحطتلي الممرضة ضماد

So the meaning flow is:

• I had a small wound on my knee, so the nurse put a bandage on me.

In everyday Levantine, فـ is extremely common for moving the story forward.

Examples:

• رحت لعندو، فحكينا شوي = I went to him, and then we talked a bit.
• كنت تعبان، فروحت بكير = I was tired, so I went home early.

حطتلي breaks down into:

• حطّت = she put
• لي / ـلي = for me / on me

So:

• حطّتلي = she put for me or, more naturally here, she put on me

Because the subject is الممرضة (the nurse, feminine), the verb is feminine singular past:

• حطّ = he put
• حطّت = she put

Then ـلي is attached to the verb as an object pronoun.

So the full meaning is something like:

• the nurse put a bandage on me

Because الممرضة means the nurse, and it is grammatically feminine.

So the verb must match:

• الممرّض = the male nurse
• الممرّضة = the female nurse

Therefore:

• حطّ الممرّض = the male nurse put
• حطّت الممرّضة = the female nurse put

In your sentence, it is specifically a female nurse, so حطّت is correct.

Yes, it can come before too.

In Arabic, both of these are possible:

• حطتلي الممرضة ضماد
• الممرضة حطتلي ضماد

The first one, with the verb first, is very natural in Arabic storytelling and narration. Arabic often likes verb-first order.

So:

• حطتلي الممرضة ضماد = The nurse put a bandage on me.
• الممرضة حطتلي ضماد = The nurse put a bandage on me.

Both are correct, but the first may sound a bit more like natural narrative flow in this context.

ضماد means bandage or dressing.

In medical contexts, it can refer to the material placed over a wound, not necessarily only the classic long strip bandage people imagine in English.

So depending on context, ضماد could be understood as:

• a bandage
• a dressing

In this sentence, put a bandage/dressing on it is the idea.

Because it is indefinite here: a bandage, not the bandage.

Compare:

• حطتلي ضماد = she put a bandage on me
• حطتلي الضماد = she put the bandage on me

Arabic often leaves nouns indefinite when English would use a/an. Arabic does not have a separate word for a/an; instead, the bare indefinite noun gives that meaning.

So ضماد here naturally means a bandage.

Yes, literally ـلي often means for me, but in context it can be more natural to translate it as on me or for me depending on the action.

With a verb like حطّ (to put), حطتلي ضماد usually means she applied a bandage to me / on me / for me.

In English, the natural translation is simply:

• The nurse put a bandage on me
• or The nurse bandaged it for me

Context does the work here.

Yes, you could, but it changes the phrasing slightly.

• عالركبة = on the knee
• على ركبتي = on my knee

Since the sentence already has عندي (I had), عالركبة is often enough to mean on my knee from context.

So both can work:

• كان عندي جرح صغير عالركبة = I had a small wound on the knee / on my knee
• كان عندي جرح صغير على ركبتي = I had a small wound on my knee

The second is a bit more explicit.

Arabic often uses body-part expressions differently from English.

In many situations, Arabic can say:

• عالركبة = on the knee

even when English prefers:

• on my knee

Because the possessor is already clear from context, Arabic does not always need to say my.

This is very common with body parts and personal items when the owner is obvious.

So the Arabic sounds natural even though the English translation may need my.

It is very understandable, and much of it is common across spoken Arabic, but it does have clear Levantine/spoken features.

Some clues:

• عالركبة instead of the more separated على الركبة
• حطتلي as a spoken-style attached form
• overall casual spoken syntax

A more formal or Modern Standard Arabic version might look different, for example using a more formal verb than حطّ.

So yes, this sentence sounds naturally spoken and Levantine-friendly.

A rough pronunciation guide would be:

kān ʿandī jorḥ zġīr ʿar-rikbe, fa-ḥaṭṭetli l-mumarreḍa ḍamād

A more learner-friendly transliteration:

kaan 3andi jur7 zghiir 3ar-rikbe, fa-7aTTetli l-mumarriDa Damaad

A few notes:

• ج in Levantine is often like zh or soft j, depending on region
• ح is a strong breathy h
• خ / غ / ع / ق-type sounds vary by region, but here the main challenge is ع
• حطّتلي has a doubled ṭṭ sound
• الركبة is pronounced with assimilation: r-rikbe

Yes, in many spoken contexts that would also be understood.

• بركبتي = in/on my knee depending on local usage and context

But عالركبة is very natural for location on the surface/body area. If you want to stay close to the original sentence, keep:

• كان عندي جرح صغير عالركبة

If you want to make my knee explicit, a very clear option is:

• كان عندي جرح صغير على ركبتي

A lot of useful spoken Arabic shows up here:

1. Possession with عند

   • عندي = I have
   • كان عندي = I had

2. Adjective after noun

   • جرح صغير = a small wound

3. Contraction in speech

   • على + ال → عال

4. Story-connector فـ

   • فحطتلي = so/then she put for me

5. Attached object pronouns

   • ـلي = for me / to me / on me, depending on context

6. Verb agreement with feminine subject

   • حطّت because الممرضة is feminine

7. Verb-first word order

   • very common in Arabic narrative style

So it is a short sentence, but it teaches a lot of real spoken Levantine patterns.