الكتاب اللي عطتني ياه زميلتي كان منيح كتير.

اللي is the Levantine relative word meaning that / which / who.

So الكتاب اللي... means the book that...

It introduces a relative clause, just like that in English:

• الكتاب اللي عطتني ياه زميلتي = the book that my classmate gave me

In Levantine, اللي is very common and does not change for gender or number. The same اللي can be used for:

• masculine
• feminine
• singular
• plural
• people
• things

So it is much simpler than relative pronouns in some other varieties or in Standard Arabic.

عطتني = عطت + ني

• عطت = she gave
• ني = me

So together:

• عطتني = she gave me

More literally:

• عطى = to give
• عطت = she gave
• عطتني = she gave me

The -ت shows the subject is feminine singular: she.

Yes, عطتني already means she gave me, but it does not tell you what she gave.

That is what ياه is doing. It refers back to الكتاب.

So:

• عطتني = she gave me
• ياه = it

Together:

• عطتني ياه = she gave it to me

This kind of extra pronoun is very common in Levantine relative clauses. Since الكتاب is the thing being talked about, the clause often includes a pronoun that points back to it.

So the structure is roughly:

• الكتاب اللي عطتني ياه زميلتي
• the book that my classmate gave me

Yes. ياه is a colloquial form related to إياه / إياهُ, and here it means him/it depending on context. Since الكتاب is masculine singular in Arabic, the pronoun is masculine singular too.

In this sentence, ياه means:

• it

You may also hear related forms such as:

• ياها = her / it (feminine)
• ياهم = them

So if the noun were feminine, the pronoun would change. For example, with القصة you would expect a feminine form instead.

Because this is a normal and natural word order in Levantine.

The clause is:

• عطتني ياه زميلتي
• literally: gave-me it my-classmate

Arabic often allows the verb first, and the subject can come after the verb. So:

• عطتني ياه زميلتي = my classmate gave it to me

This verb-first order is extremely common in spoken Arabic.

You could think of it as:

• عطتني = gave me
• ياه = it
• زميلتي = my classmate

Because the subject is زميلتي = my classmate in the feminine.

The base past-tense forms are:

• عطى = he gave
• عطت = she gave

Since زميلتي is feminine, the sentence uses the feminine form:

• عطتني = she gave me

If the subject were masculine, you would get:

• الكتاب اللي عطاني ياه زميلي...
• the book that my male classmate gave me...

زميلتي means my classmate / my colleague (female) depending on context.

Breakdown:

• زميلة = female classmate / female colleague
• زميلتي = my female classmate / my female colleague

The ending -ي / -ti here gives the meaning my.

Because the speaker is referring to a female person, the word is feminine.

Because the sentence is talking about the past.

In Arabic, a sentence like:

• الكتاب منيح كتير means:
• the book is very good

But if you want past meaning:

• الكتاب كان منيح كتير means:
• the book was very good

So كان here is the past-tense copula:

• كان = was

This is very common in both spoken Arabic and Standard Arabic.

منيح means good, nice, or fine, depending on context.

كتير means very or a lot.

So:

• منيح كتير = very good / really good

In this sentence, it describes the book positively. A very natural English translation would be:

• The book that my classmate gave me was really good.

That is just how Arabic expresses it here.

In Levantine, كتير often comes after the adjective or adverb:

• منيح كتير = very good
• كبير كتير = very big
• سريع كتير = very fast

So even though English says very good, Levantine commonly says something more like good very.

This word order is normal and very frequent in speech.

A natural Levantine-style pronunciation would be something like:

il-ktēb illi ʿaṭatnī yāh zmīltī kān mnīḥ ktīr

Very roughly for an English speaker:

• الكتاب → il-kteeb / il-ktēb
• اللي → illi
• عطتني → ʿaṭatni
• ياه → yaah
• زميلتي → zmiilti / zmīltī
• كان → kaan
• منيح → mniih / mnīḥ
• كتير → ktiir / ktīr

A few pronunciation notes:

• ع is a consonant English does not really have.
• ح in منيح is stronger and breathier than English h.
• Short vowels are often reduced in fast speech, so some syllables may sound lighter than you expect.

Because this is Levantine Arabic, not formal Standard Arabic.

In spoken Levantine, case endings such as -u, -a, and -i are normally not used. So you get:

• الكتاب not
• الكتابُ or الكتابَ

This is completely normal in dialect.

A Standard Arabic version would look more formal and would use different grammar, for example a relative pronoun like الذي instead of اللي, and more formal vocabulary/structure.

Yes. Depending on the region and speaker, you may hear:

• اللي
• يلي

Both are common Levantine forms of the relative word that / which / who.

So a speaker might say:

• الكتاب يلي عطتني ياه زميلتي كان منيح كتير

This means the same thing. The difference is mainly regional or personal preference, not a difference in meaning.