Learn Hardcore Arabic (Levantine): لما وصلني الايميل، رديت عالطول وما نطرت للصبح. - When the email reached me, I replied right away and did not wait until morning.

Word

لما وصلني الايميل، رديت عالطول وما نطرت للصبح.

Meaning

When the email reached me, I replied right away and did not wait until morning.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Breakdown of لما وصلني الايميل، رديت عالطول وما نطرت للصبح.

Why does the sentence start with لما? What does it do here?

In Levantine, لما often means when in past-time storytelling.

So لما وصلني الايميل means when the email reached me / when I got the email.

It introduces the event that happened first, and then the next part tells you what happened after that:

This is very common in spoken narrative.

Why is it وصلني and not something like أنا وصلت الايميل?

Because وصلني literally means it reached me.

Breakdown:

So:

This is a very common Arabic way to express receiving messages, calls, news, etc.

What exactly is the -ني in وصلني?

-ني is the attached object pronoun meaning me.

So:

In this sentence, the subject comes after the verb:

That word order is completely normal in Arabic.