في المطبخ فيه زيت وملح وسكر، بس مفيش ثوم.

They are doing two different jobs.

• في = in
• فيه = there is / there are

So:

• في المطبخ = in the kitchen
• فيه زيت وملح وسكر = there is oil, salt, and sugar

Even though they look related, in Egyptian Arabic فيه is a very common existential expression, meaning that something exists or is present somewhere.

Arabic often puts the location first, especially in sentences about what is موجود / present somewhere.

So the structure is:

• في المطبخ = location
• فيه زيت وملح وسكر = there is oil, salt, and sugar
• بس مفيش ثوم = but there is no garlic

This is very natural in Egyptian Arabic. English can also do this:

• In the kitchen, there is oil...

So the Arabic word order is not strange; it is just a little different from the most common English version.

مفيش means there isn’t / there aren’t / there is no / there are no.

In this sentence:

• مفيش ثوم = there’s no garlic

It is the negative form of فيه.

So:

• فيه = there is / there are
• مفيش = there isn’t / there aren’t

In Egyptian Arabic, مفيش is extremely common and useful.

Examples:

• فيه مية = there is water
• مفيش مية = there isn’t any water
• فيه ناس = there are people
• مفيش ناس = there aren’t any people

Notice that English changes between is and are, but فيه and مفيش stay the same.

In Arabic, present-tense to be is often not expressed the way it is in English.

In this sentence, Arabic uses فيه as an existential expression, meaning there is / there are, rather than a normal verb like English is.

So instead of something like:

• The kitchen is having oil
  Arabic simply says:
• In the kitchen there is oil

This is one of the most basic and natural ways to talk about what exists somewhere.

Because they are indefinite here.

• زيت = oil
• ملح = salt
• سكر = sugar
• ثوم = garlic

These are being mentioned as general substances, not specific identified ones. In English, we often use bare mass nouns too:

• There is oil, salt, and sugar
• There is no garlic

You could think of them as meaning some oil, some salt, some sugar, but Arabic usually does not need a separate word for some here.

If you added ال, the meaning would become more specific:

• الزيت = the oil
• السكر = the sugar

Yes. بس can mean different things depending on context, and two very common meanings are:

• only / just
• but

In this sentence, it means but:

• بس مفيش ثوم = but there is no garlic

This is very common in Egyptian Arabic.

Examples:

• أنا بس تعبان = I’m just tired / only tired
• كنت عايز أروح، بس اتأخرت = I wanted to go, but I was late

So you have to read بس from context.

That is a normal Arabic way to list things.

• و = and
• زيت وملح وسكر = oil and salt and sugar

Arabic often repeats و between each item in a list. English can do that too, although English often only uses and before the last item.

So this Arabic list is completely natural.

Yes. In Egyptian Arabic, فيه works for both there is and there are.

Examples:

• فيه كتاب = there is a book
• فيه كتب = there are books
• فيه زيت وملح وسكر = there is/are oil, salt, and sugar

Likewise, مفيش works for both singular and plural negatives:

• مفيش كتاب = there isn’t a book
• مفيش كتب = there aren’t books
• مفيش ثوم = there isn’t any garlic

So unlike English, you do not change the form depending on singular or plural.

This sentence is clearly Egyptian Arabic, mainly because of فيه, مفيش, and بس in this everyday conversational use.

A more formal MSA-style version might be something like:

• في المطبخ زيت وملح وسكر، لكن لا يوجد ثوم or
• في المطبخ يوجد زيت وملح وسكر، لكن لا يوجد ثوم

Key differences:

• Egyptian: فيه / مفيش / بس
• MSA: يوجد / لا يوجد / لكن

So the given sentence is natural spoken Egyptian.

A natural pronunciation would be roughly:

fil-maṭbax fīh zēt u milḥ u sukkar, bass mafīš tōm

A few helpful notes:

• في المطبخ is often pronounced together as fil-maṭbax
• فيه sounds like fīh
• بس sounds like bass
• مفيش sounds like mafīsh
• ثوم in Egyptian is often pronounced tōm rather than the Standard Arabic thūm

So even if the spelling looks close to Standard Arabic, the pronunciation is very Egyptian.

Usually you would keep it, because في المطبخ tells us the location: in the kitchen.

Without it:

• فيه زيت وملح وسكر، بس مفيش ثوم
  means:
• There is oil, salt, and sugar, but there is no garlic

That is still correct, but it no longer specifically says in the kitchen.

So the first في is not optional if you want to include the location.

Here it means garlic in general.

Because ثوم is being used as a mass/generic noun, مفيش ثوم means:

• there is no garlic
• there isn’t any garlic

If you wanted to talk about a specific unit, you would usually need extra wording, depending on exactly what you mean, such as a clove or a head of garlic.

So in this sentence, think of ثوم as the ingredient, not as one countable piece.

Because Arabic often leaves that idea unspoken when it is obvious from context.

So:

• زيت can mean oil or some oil
• ملح can mean salt or some salt
• سكر can mean sugar or some sugar
• ثوم can mean garlic or any garlic

English often uses some or any, but Arabic frequently does not need an equivalent word.

That is why:

• فيه زيت naturally means there is some oil
• مفيش ثوم naturally means there isn’t any garlic