اللبن على الرف، والكاسات الصغيرة جنبه.

In Levantine Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually omitted in simple statements like this.

So:

• اللبن على الرف = The laban is on the shelf
• الكاسات الصغيرة جنبه = The small glasses are next to it

This is completely normal. Arabic often just puts the noun and the location/description together.

If you wanted was or will be, then a verb would appear, such as كان.

In Levantine, لبن usually means yogurt or laban (including drinkable yogurt, depending on context), not regular milk.

For regular milk, Levantine usually uses حليب.

So this is an important dialect point:

• لبن = yogurt / laban
• حليب = milk

A learner who knows more formal Arabic or another dialect may expect لبن to mean milk, so this word often causes confusion.

على is the normal preposition for on.

So:

• على الرف = on the shelf

You could sometimes hear فوق الرف too, but that usually feels more like on top of / above and can sound a little more spatial or emphatic.

في الرف would mean in the shelf / inside the shelf, which is different.

So for the basic idea on the shelf, على الرف is the most natural choice.

Usually no. ر is a sun letter, so the l of الـ assimilates to it.

So الرف is pronounced roughly like ir-raff or er-raff, with a doubled r sound.

After على, speakers often say something like:

• ʿa r-raff
• ʿal r-raff

This happens in many Arabic words that begin with sun letters: the ل is written, but not pronounced separately.

Because in Arabic, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So:

• الكاسات الصغيرة = the small glasses

Literally, it is structured like:

• the glasses the-small

That may feel backwards from English, but it is the normal Arabic order.

Because Arabic adjectives agree with the noun in definiteness.

So if the noun is definite:

• الكاسات = the glasses

then the adjective must also be definite:

• الصغيرة = the small

That gives:

• الكاسات الصغيرة = the small glasses

Compare:

• كاسات صغيرة = small glasses / some small glasses
• الكاسات الصغيرة = the small glasses

This is a very common Arabic pattern. With non-human plurals like objects, Arabic often uses a feminine singular adjective.

So even though الكاسات is plural, الصغيرة is normal.

That means:

• الكاسات الصغيرة is a natural way to say the small glasses

This happens a lot with things, animals, and objects. It is one of those patterns English speakers usually need time to get used to.

كاسات is a very common Levantine everyday word.

• singular: كاسة
• plural: كاسات

It often means glasses or cups, depending on context.

أكواب is also correct, but it sounds more formal or more like Standard Arabic to many learners. In everyday Levantine speech, كاسة / كاسات is extremely common.

جنبه is built from:

• جنب = side
• -ه = his / its

So literally it means at its side or beside it.

In natural English, that becomes:

• next to it
• beside it

In Levantine pronunciation, the ending -ه often sounds like -o, so جنبه is often said something like janbo.

Grammatically, it could refer to either one, because both اللبن and الرف are masculine singular.

So yes, the sentence is a little ambiguous by itself.

Usually, context tells you what is meant. In real life, listeners would understand it from the situation.

If you wanted to make it completely clear, you could repeat the noun:

• جنب الرف = next to the shelf
• جنب اللبن = next to the laban

Yes. In Levantine, حدّ plus a pronoun is another very common way to say next to / beside.

So you may hear:

• الكاسات الصغيرة جنبه
• الكاسات الصغيرة حدّه

Both are natural. حدّ is especially common in everyday spoken Levantine. The exact pronunciation and spelling can vary a bit by region, but the idea is the same.