حط الصحن جنب الكاسة، ولا تتركه عالكرسي.

Because this is the imperative addressed to one man. In Levantine, the plain form حطّ is a command to a singular masculine listener.

If you changed who you were speaking to, the form would change:

• to one man: حطّ
• to one woman: حطّي
• to more than one person: حطّوا

• الصحن means the plate or the dish
• الكاسة means the cup or the glass, depending on context

A useful thing to notice is that كاسة is grammatically feminine, while صحن is masculine.

Because ص is a sun letter. In Arabic, when الـ comes before a sun letter, the ل sound is not pronounced. So الصحن is pronounced more like iṣ-ṣaḥan or eṣ-ṣaḥan, depending on dialect and speaker.

So:

• written: الصحن
• pronounced: roughly iṣ-ṣaḥan

This happens in both formal and spoken Arabic.

جنب means beside / next to.

In Levantine, you can say جنب الكاسة directly for next to the cup/glass. You do not need an extra preposition in English-like structure. It works very naturally this way in Arabic.

Here, ولا is best understood as and don’t.

It is basically:

• و = and
• لا = don’t / not

So ولا تتركه means and don’t leave it.

In other contexts, ولا can have different functions, but in this sentence it is not the or meaning.

In Levantine Arabic, negative commands are commonly made with لا + the imperfect/present verb form.

So:

• positive command: حطّ = put
• negative command: لا تتركه = don’t leave it

That is a very normal spoken pattern.

The -ه is an attached object pronoun meaning him/it. Here it refers to الصحن.

Since صحن is grammatically masculine, the pronoun is -ه.

If the pronoun referred to الكاسة instead, it would be -ها:

• تتركه = leave it (masculine)
• تتركها = leave it (feminine)

It is a common spoken contraction of على الكرسي.

So:

• full form: على الكرسي
• spoken/informal written form: عالكرسي

This is extremely common in Levantine. The meaning is still on the chair.

Here are the common forms:

• to one man: حطّ الصحن جنب الكاسة، ولا تتركه عالكرسي
• to one woman: حطّي الصحن جنب الكاسة، ولا تتركيه عالكرسي
• to a group: حطّوا الصحن جنب الكاسة، ولا تتركوه عالكرسي

The verb changes depending on who is being addressed.

This sentence is clearly colloquial Levantine.

A more formal / MSA version would be something like: ضع الطبق بجانب الكأس، ولا تتركه على الكرسي

A Levantine speaker would normally use the colloquial version in everyday speech.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

ḥoṭṭ eṣ-ṣaḥan janb il-kāse, w lā tətrok-o ʿal-kursi

A few helpful notes:

• ḥ is a strong Arabic ح
• ṣ and ṭ are emphatic consonants
• ʿ represents the sound of ع
• pronunciation can vary a bit from one Levantine region to another

Because this is spoken Levantine Arabic, not formal MSA. Everyday Levantine does not use the full case-ending system that learners often see in textbooks.

So a sentence like this sounds natural in conversation exactly because it is simple and colloquial.