ظلينا عم نحكي عن المشروع بعد الاجتماع.

ظلينا means we kept / we continued / we stayed in this sentence.

It comes from the verb ضلّ or ظلّ in Levantine, which is often used to express continuing to do something. So in this sentence, it does not just mean we stayed physically in a place; it means we went on doing something.

• ضلّ / ظلّ = to remain, keep, continue
• ظلينا / ضلّينا = we continued / we kept on

In everyday Levantine, this verb is very common for saying that an action kept going.

In Levantine, عم is a very common marker for an ongoing action. It often works like English be + -ing.

So:

• نحكي = we speak / we talk
• عم نحكي = we are talking

In this sentence, ظلينا عم نحكي gives the idea of we kept talking or we continued talking.

So the structure is roughly:

• ظلينا = we continued
• عم نحكي = talking / being in the process of talking

Together: we kept talking.

Great question. In Levantine, the present/imperfect verb often appears with بـ in ordinary present statements, but after عم, you normally use the verb without that marker.

Compare:

• منحكي or بنحكي = we talk / we are talking (depending on dialect and context)
• عم نحكي = we are talking

So after عم, you say:

• عم بحكي ❌
• عم حكي ❌
• عم نحكي ✅

That is why the sentence uses عم نحكي, not عم منحكي.

This is an important nuance.

• كنا عم نحكي = we were talking
• ظلينا عم نحكي = we kept talking / we continued talking

So:

كنا عم نحكي

This simply describes an ongoing action in the past.

ظلينا عم نحكي

This adds the idea of continuation or persistence. It suggests the talking went on for some time.

So if you want to emphasize that the conversation continued after something happened, ظلينا عم نحكي is a very natural choice.

Yes, very common.

In Levantine, a very natural pattern is:

ضلّ / ظلّ + عم + imperfect verb

For example:

• ضلّيت عم استنى = I kept waiting
• ضلّوا عم يضحكوا = they kept laughing
• ظلينا عم نحكي = we kept talking

This is one of the most natural ways to express continued action in spoken Levantine.

عن means about, so عن المشروع means about the project.

Breakdown:

• عن = about
• المشروع = the project

So:

• نحكي عن المشروع = we talk about the project

This is the standard preposition used with talking about something.

المشروع means the project, while مشروع means a project.

So the sentence is referring to a specific project already known in the conversation.

• عن مشروع = about a project
• عن المشروع = about the project

Using الـ makes the noun definite, just like the in English.

بعد الاجتماع literally means after the meeting.

Breakdown:

• بعد = after
• الاجتماع = the meeting

So the whole sentence ends with a time expression: after the meeting.

The word order here is very natural:

ظلينا عم نحكي عن المشروع بعد الاجتماع

But in spoken Arabic, time expressions can sometimes move around for emphasis, for example:

• بعد الاجتماع ظلينا عم نحكي عن المشروع

That would also be natural and means the same thing, with a bit more focus on after the meeting.

This sentence is clearly Levantine Arabic, not Modern Standard Arabic.

Clues include:

• عم as a progressive marker
• نحكي in this spoken-dialect sense
• ظلينا used in a conversational way for we kept

A more MSA-style sentence would look quite different. The sentence you have is natural spoken Arabic from the Levant.

Yes. You may see both ظلّينا and ضلّينا.

In many Levantine varieties, people pronounce this verb with ض in speech, so ضلّ is extremely common in writing informal dialect. Some people write ظلّ instead.

So these are both commonly seen:

• ظلّينا
• ضلّينا

In informal Levantine writing, spelling is often flexible.

You keep the same general pattern, but change the form of ضلّ / ظلّ and the imperfect verb.

Examples:

• ضلّيت عم بحكي = I kept talking
• ضلّينا عم نحكي = we kept talking
• ضلّوا عم يحكوا = they kept talking

So the pattern is:

continued + عم + imperfect verb

This is a very useful model you can reuse with many verbs.

In Levantine, حكى / يحكي is a very common verb and can cover meanings like:

• talk
• speak
• say
• tell

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, عم نحكي عن المشروع clearly means we were talking about the project, not we were saying the project.

So here, talk is the most natural English match.

A simple rough transliteration is:

zallēna 3am neHki 3an il-mashrū3 ba3d il-ijtimaa3

A few notes:

• عم is often written as 3am
• ح in نحكي is a stronger h-like sound than English h
• ع in عن and اجتماع is a consonant sound that English does not have
• الاجتماع may sound a bit reduced in fast speech depending on the speaker

A smoother casual pronunciation might sound something like:

zallēna 3am neHki 3an il-mashrū3 ba3d lijtimaa3

The exact pronunciation will vary by region.