طارد الحشرات وواقي الشمس بالكيس.

The insect repellent and sunscreen are in the bag.

Breakdown of طارد الحشرات وواقي الشمس بالكيس.

• كيس: bag
• طارد حشرات: the insect repellent
• واقي شمس: the sunscreen

Questions & Answers about طارد الحشرات وواقي الشمس بالكيس.

Why is there no word for are in this sentence?

Because Arabic normally leaves out the present-tense verb to be.
So طارد الحشرات وواقي الشمس بالكيس can mean something like the insect repellent and the sunscreen are in the bag without saying are.

This is very normal in Levantine and in Arabic generally.
If you wanted a past meaning, you would usually need a verb.

How do I break this sentence into parts?

A natural breakdown is:

• طارد الحشرات = insect repellent
• و = and
• واقي الشمس = sunscreen / sunblock
• بالكيس = in the bag

So it is basically:

[item 1] + and + [item 2] + [location]

Why is الحشرات plural? English says insect repellent, not insects repellent.

Arabic often uses a plural noun in expressions like this where English uses a singular noun inside a compound.

So طارد الحشرات is literally something like repeller of insects.
That is the normal Arabic way to express the idea.

Similarly, English often compresses nouns into compounds, while Arabic usually builds a phrase instead.

What does بـ mean in بالكيس? Why not في?