ليش عم بتشرب حليب؟

Yes. ليش is the very common Levantine word for why.

• ليش = why
• A common pronunciation is leesh

You may also hear variants like ليه in some areas or speech styles, but ليش is extremely common and natural in Levantine.

عم is a marker often used in Levantine to show an action is happening right now or is in progress.

So:

• بتشرب can mean you drink / you are drinking depending on context
• عم بتشرب more clearly means you are drinking

That is why ليش عم بتشرب حليب؟ is understood as Why are you drinking milk?

In Levantine Arabic, many present-tense verbs take a b- prefix.

So:

• root idea: تشرب = you drink
• common Levantine present form: بتشرب

This b- is a normal part of the spoken present tense in Levantine. In this sentence, it marks the you form and fits the everyday spoken pattern.

Also, with عم, many speakers still keep the b-:

• عم بتشرب

Some dialects or speakers may vary, but the form in your sentence is very natural.

بتشرب here is second person singular masculine:

• you (said to one male)

So the full sentence is addressed to one man or boy.

Related forms:

• to a woman: ليش عم بتشربي حليب؟
• to a group: forms vary by dialect, for example ليش عم بتشربوا حليب؟

Because Arabic verbs already include the subject.

In بتشرب, the verb itself already tells you the subject is you. So you do not need to say a separate pronoun unless you want emphasis.

For example:

• ليش عم بتشرب حليب؟ = normal, natural
• ليش إنت عم بتشرب حليب؟ = Why are you drinking milk? with extra emphasis on you

So leaving out the pronoun is completely normal.

In Levantine Arabic, question words like ليش usually come at the beginning of the sentence.

So the pattern is:

• ليش
  • progressive marker + verb + object

That gives:

• ليش عم بتشرب حليب؟

This is the natural Arabic order for this kind of question.

Because حليب here is being used as an indefinite mass noun, similar to milk in English.

In English, you can say:

• Why are you drinking milk?

You do not have to say the milk unless you mean a specific milk already known in the situation.

The same idea applies here:

• حليب = milk, some milk, milk in general
• الحليب = the milk, a specific milk

So ليش عم بتشرب حليب؟ sounds like Why are you drinking milk? If you said ليش عم بتشرب الحليب؟, it would sound more like Why are you drinking the milk?

A common pronunciation is:

leesh ʿam bitishrab ḥaleeb?

A rough breakdown:

• ليش = leesh
• عم = ʿam
  The first sound, ع, is a deep throat sound that does not exist in English.
• بتشرب = bitishrab or btishrab depending on how carefully or quickly someone speaks
• حليب = ḥaleeb
  The ح is a strong breathy h sound from deeper in the throat than normal English h.

If you cannot produce ع and ح perfectly yet, that is normal for learners.

With عم, it is specifically pointing to an action in progress, so it strongly means:

• Why are you drinking milk?
• Why are you in the middle of drinking milk?

If you remove عم:

• ليش بتشرب حليب؟

that is more likely to mean:

• Why do you drink milk?
• Why do you drink milk regularly?

So عم helps make the meaning more clearly right now.

Yes. Levantine has regional variation, so you may hear small differences.

Some possible differences include:

• ليش عم بتشرب حليب؟
• ليه عم بتشرب حليب؟

In some areas, speakers may also vary in how strongly they pronounce the b- or in vowel details.

But the sentence you were given is a very standard and useful Levantine phrasing.

A close Modern Standard Arabic version would be:

لماذا تشرب الحليب؟

But this is not the same style as everyday Levantine speech.

A few differences:

• لماذا is Standard Arabic for why, while Levantine usually says ليش
• Standard Arabic usually does not use عم this way
• Standard Arabic often uses more formal vocabulary and structure

So if your goal is spoken Levantine, ليش عم بتشرب حليب؟ is the more natural everyday form.

You change the verb ending:

• to a man: ليش عم بتشرب حليب؟
• to a woman: ليش عم بتشربي حليب؟

The difference is:

• بتشرب = you drink (to a male)
• بتشربي = you drink (to a female)

This is a very important feature in Arabic: verbs often change depending on the gender of the person you are speaking to.