هي نامت تحت البطانية، بس تركت الكتاب على السرير جنب المخدة.

Yes, it can. In Levantine Arabic, the verb already shows who did the action, so نامت by itself means she slept.

Adding هي is optional here. It can:

• make the subject extra clear,
• add a bit of emphasis,
• or help the sentence sound more explicit in storytelling.

So both are natural:

• هي نامت تحت البطانية
• نامت تحت البطانية

The version with هي is a little more like She slept under the blanket...

That -ت marks the 3rd person feminine singular in the past tense.

So:

• نام = he slept
• نامت = she slept

and

• ترك = he left
• تركت = she left

Since the subject is هي (she), both verbs take the feminine past ending.

Yes. In Levantine, بس very commonly means but in everyday speech.

So here:

• ... بس تركت الكتاب ... = ... but she left the book ...

However, بس can also mean only / just in other contexts. For example:

• بس هيك = just like that
• عندي بس خمسة = I only have five

So the meaning depends on context. In your sentence, it clearly means but.

Yes, تحت means under / beneath, so تحت البطانية literally means under the blanket.

In natural English, depending on context, you might also translate it as:

• under the covers
• under the blanket

But the Arabic word بطانية specifically means blanket.

Because they are being treated as specific, known things:

• البطانية = the blanket
• الكتاب = the book
• السرير = the bed
• المخدة = the pillow

Arabic often uses the definite article in places where English also uses the, and sometimes even where English might sound a little less definite. In this sentence, the speaker is talking about particular items in the scene, so الـ sounds very natural.

The basic meaning of تركت from ترك is left.

So تركت الكتاب على السرير means:

• she left the book on the bed

It does not literally mean put. But in context, if someone leaves something somewhere, English may sometimes understand it almost like she put it there and left it there.

So the best direct meaning is still left.

جنب means beside / next to / by the side of.

So:

• جنب المخدة = next to the pillow

In everyday Levantine, جنب is very common and useful. You can use it with many nouns:

• جنب الباب = next to the door
• جنب البيت = beside the house
• قعدت جنبي = she sat next to me

A natural way to read it is:

• على السرير = on the bed
• جنب المخدة = next to the pillow

Together:

• على السرير جنب المخدة = on the bed next to the pillow

So the book was left in a specific location: on the bed, beside the pillow.

Yes, very natural.

The sentence is:

• هي نامت تحت البطانية، بس تركت الكتاب على السرير جنب المخدة.

This follows a very common spoken pattern:

• subject + verb + details
• then بس
• then another verb + object + location

Arabic word order is somewhat flexible, but this version sounds normal and conversational.

It can absolutely refer back to someone already known in the conversation.

In fact, in Levantine, once the subject is clear, speakers often drop the pronoun. So if the context already makes it obvious who she is, you might hear:

• نامت تحت البطانية، بس تركت الكتاب على السرير جنب المخدة.

That would still be perfectly clear in many situations.

Yes, المخدة is a very common Levantine everyday word for the pillow.

It is usually pronounced something like:

• il-mkhadde
• or el-mkhadde

depending on the speaker and region.

A few useful notes:

• the خ is the throaty kh sound,
• the د is doubled, so the middle feels a bit stronger,
• the final ة is pronounced like a short -e / -a sound in Levantine speech.

In Modern Standard Arabic, a more formal word is وسادة, but in daily Levantine, مخدة is much more common.

In Levantine, the final ة is usually pronounced as a short -e or sometimes -a, depending on the word and accent.

So you often hear:

• البطانية as il-batṭāniyye
• المخدة as il-mkhadde

But when a suffix is added, that ة can become a clear t sound. For example:

• مخدة = pillow
• مخدتها = her pillow

So by itself, it often sounds like -e, but before endings it behaves like t.

For البطانية, blanket is correct.

For المخدة, the best translation here is pillow, not cushion.

• بطانية = blanket
• مخدة = pillow

A cushion in English is usually something for a chair or sofa, while مخدة in this context is clearly the thing on the bed you rest your head on.

Most of it is understandable very broadly, but it sounds mainly colloquial Levantine because of words like بس and المخدة.

More formal/Standard Arabic versions might use:

• لكن instead of بس
• وسادة instead of مخدة

So a more formal version could be something like:

• هي نامت تحت البطانية، لكن تركت الكتاب على السرير بجانب الوسادة.

Your original sentence is much more natural for everyday Levantine speech.