رح ضل بالمكتب للمسا.

رح is a Levantine future marker. It means something like will or going to.

So:

• رح ضل = I’ll stay / I’m going to stay

It’s very common in spoken Levantine Arabic.

In Levantine, the b- prefix is usually used for the present or habitual sense:

• بضل بالمكتب = I stay / I usually stay in the office

But after words like رح, that b- normally drops:

• رح ضل بالمكتب = I will stay in the office

So رح بضل would sound wrong or nonstandard in this context.

ضل here means stay, remain, or keep being somewhere.

In Levantine, ضل can have two common uses:

1. Stay/remain

   • رح ضل بالمكتب = I’ll stay in the office

2. Keep/continue doing

   • ضل يضحك = He kept laughing
   • رح ضل اشتغل = I’ll keep working

In your sentence, because it is followed by a place (بالمكتب), the meaning is clearly stay/remain.

Because it is made of two parts:

• بـ = in / at
• المكتب = the office (sometimes desk, depending on context)

So:

• بالمكتب = in the office / at the office

In this sentence, office is the natural meaning.

Here it means until the evening or till this evening.

That is a very common learner question, because the literal form can be misleading.

In this sentence:

• رح ضل بالمكتب للمسا = I’ll stay in the office until the evening

If you wanted to say in the evening, you would usually say:

• بالمسا = in the evening

So the contrast is roughly:

• للمسا = until evening / till the evening
• بالمسا = in the evening

It isn’t stated explicitly, and that is normal in Arabic.

Arabic often leaves out subject pronouns when they are understood from context. In colloquial writing, this happens even more often.

So:

• رح ضل بالمكتب للمسا = I’ll stay in the office until the evening

If you want to add emphasis, you can say:

• أنا رح ضل بالمكتب للمسا = I will stay in the office until the evening

The أنا is optional unless you want emphasis or contrast.

A helpful pronunciation guide is:

• raḥ ḍall bil-maktab lal-masa

A few notes:

• رح = raḥ
• ضل = ḍall
• بالمكتب = bil-maktab
• للمسا = often something like lal-masa

Exact vowels can vary by region and speaker, but this is a good practical approximation.

Yes, this is clearly colloquial Levantine.

A Standard Arabic equivalent would be something like:

• سأبقى في المكتب حتى المساء

Key differences:

• Levantine رح corresponds to Standard Arabic سـ or سوف
• Levantine بالمكتب corresponds to Standard Arabic في المكتب
• Levantine المسا corresponds to Standard Arabic المساء
• Levantine للمسا here works like Standard Arabic حتى المساء

So the sentence is very natural in spoken Levantine, even though it differs from formal Arabic.

Yes, مكتب can mean either desk or office depending on context.

But in this sentence, office is much more likely:

• رح ضل بالمكتب للمسا sounds like I’ll stay at the office until the evening

If someone meant desk, the broader situation would usually make that clear.