امي عم تحط البندورة والبصل عالطاولة.

A common Levantine pronunciation is:

emmi ʿam tḥoṭṭ il-bandōra wil-baṣal ʿaṭ-ṭāwle

A few notes:

• امي is often pronounced emmi or immi
• عم = ʿam
• تحط has a strong ṭṭ sound at the end
• والبصل is usually pronounced wil-baṣal or wal-baṣal
• عالطاولة is often pronounced ʿaṭ-ṭāwle, because the ل of ال assimilates to ط

Pronunciation varies a bit by country and city, but this is a very normal Levantine reading.

عم marks an action that is happening right now. It often works like English is/are ...-ing.

So:

• عم تحط = is putting
• عم ياكل = is eating
• عم ندرس = we are studying

In this sentence, عم tells you the action is ongoing: your mother is in the middle of putting the items on the table.

Because the subject is امي = my mother, which is feminine singular.

In Levantine present-tense verb forms:

• هو → يحط = he puts
• هي → تحط = she puts

So:

• امي عم تحط = my mother is putting

The تـ here marks the she form.

This is a very common learner question.

In Levantine, بـ often marks the regular present or habitual action:

• أمي بتحط البصل بالأكل = My mother puts onion in the food / My mother usually adds onion

But عم + imperfect is used for an action happening right now:

• أمي عم تحط... = My mother is putting...

So in this sentence, عم تحط is a normal progressive form. In some dialects, you may also hear عم بتحط, but عم تحط is very common and completely natural.

Yes. The base colloquial verb is حطّ.

It means to put, to place, or to set down.

Common forms:

• حطّ = he put / the dictionary-style colloquial base
• يحطّ = he puts
• تحطّ = she puts or you put (depending on context)

This is a very everyday Levantine verb. In Modern Standard Arabic, the more formal equivalent is often وضع.

Because تحط can mean either one, depending on context.

In Levantine, the same verb form can match:

• هي تحط = she puts
• إنتَ تحط = you put (to a man)

So how do you know which one is meant?

You look at the subject:

• امي عم تحط → the subject is my mother, so it must mean she is putting

Context usually makes this completely clear.

Yes. امي and أمي both mean my mother.

What is happening:

• أم / ام = mother
• -ي = my

So:

• أمي / امي = my mother

In casual Levantine writing, people often leave out the hamza, so امي is very common. The pronunciation is usually closer to emmi or immi, not a careful formal ummī.

Because in Arabic script, the word for and — و — is written attached to the following word.

So:

• والبصل = و + البصل
• literally: and + the onion/onions

This is completely normal Arabic spelling. You will see it all the time:

• والبيت = and the house
• والولد = and the boy
• والمدرسة = and the school

عالطاولة is the colloquial contracted form of على الطاولة.

So:

• على = on
• الطاولة = the table
• على الطاولة → in speech becomes عالطاولة

This contraction is very common in Levantine.

There is also a pronunciation change here:

• ط is a sun letter
• so the ل of ال is not pronounced separately

That is why عالطاولة is often said like:

ʿaṭ-ṭāwle

rather than pronouncing every letter one by one.

Because this is Levantine pronunciation, not formal Modern Standard Arabic pronunciation.

In MSA:

• طاولة is pronounced something like ṭāwila

In Levantine:

• it is usually pronounced ṭāwle or ṭāwleh depending on the dialect

This happens a lot with words ending in ـة. In Levantine, that ending often sounds like -e rather than -a or -ah.

Arabic often uses the definite article ال more freely than English, especially with food, ingredients, and familiar objects in the situation.

So البندورة والبصل can naturally refer to:

• the tomato and the onion
• the tomatoes and onions
• the tomato and onion as ingredients being handled right now

English chooses the or no the based on what sounds natural in context, but Arabic often prefers ال in cases like this.

So the presence of ال does not always map neatly to English the word-for-word.

Yes, this is very normal in Levantine.

Levantine often likes subject + verb + object word order in everyday speech:

• امي عم تحط البندورة والبصل عالطاولة

This feels very natural and conversational.

You can also start with the verb in Arabic, but subject-first is extremely common in spoken Levantine, especially in simple everyday sentences like this one.