بالمطبخ في علبة كبيرة للبصل وعلبة صغيرة للبطاطا.

بالمطبخ means in the kitchen.

In Levantine Arabic, بـ is very commonly used for location, so بالمطبخ is a normal everyday way to say in/at the kitchen. A learner might expect في المطبخ, and that is possible too, but بالمطبخ sounds very natural in colloquial Levantine.

So here:

• بـ = in / at
• المطبخ = the kitchen
• بالمطبخ = in the kitchen

Yes, في can mean in, but in Levantine it also very often means there is / there are.

So in this sentence the two words do different jobs:

• بالمطبخ = gives the location: in the kitchen
• في = introduces existence: there is / there are

So the structure is basically:

• بالمطبخ = in the kitchen
• في علبة... = there is a container...

This is also why there is no separate word for English is/are here. In this kind of sentence, في does that job.

A very useful related pattern is:

• في = there is / there are
• ما في = there isn’t / there aren’t

Because in Arabic, adjectives normally come after the noun.

So:

• علبة كبيرة = a big container
• علبة صغيرة = a small container

This is the normal Arabic word order. English says big container, but Arabic says container big.

If the noun is definite, the adjective is definite too:

• العلبة الكبيرة = the big container

Because علبة is a feminine singular noun, and Arabic adjectives must agree with the noun.

So:

• علبة is feminine
• therefore كبيرة and صغيرة are also feminine

Compare:

• علبة كبيرة = a big container
• صندوق كبير = a big box

Here صندوق is masculine, so the adjective is كبير, not كبيرة.

Yes. لـ here means for, in the sense of meant for, used for, or intended for.

So:

• علبة للبصل = a container for onions
• علبة للبطاطا = a container for potatoes

English often uses noun-noun combinations such as onion box or potato container, but Arabic very often uses لـ instead.

So the sentence is not built like onion-container. It is built more like:

• a big container for onions
• a small container for potatoes

Because Arabic often uses الـ with food items, categories, and generic things in places where English would use no article.

So:

• للبصل can mean for onions
• للبطاطا can mean for potatoes

It does not always have to be translated as for the onions or for the potatoes. The Arabic definite article does not always match English the one-for-one.

This is very common and natural.

Because both parts belong to the same there is / there are structure.

The sentence is understood as:

• In the kitchen, there is a big container for onions and a small container for potatoes.

Arabic does not need to repeat في, just like English does not need to repeat there is every time.

So this is perfectly natural:

• في علبة كبيرة للبصل وعلبة صغيرة للبطاطا

علبة is a general word for a box, container, case, or sometimes a tin/can, depending on context.

In this sentence, the best English idea is probably container or storage box. It is a broad word, not one very specific type of object.

So علبة كبيرة للبصل could mean something like:

• a big container for onions
• a large storage box for onions

Yes. Arabic can sometimes use other structures, but علبة للبصل is very natural because it clearly shows purpose: a container for onions.

A learner may expect something more like an English compound noun, but Arabic usually does not build these the same way English does. Using لـ is one of the most common and straightforward ways to express this idea.

So for a learner, علبة للبصل is a very useful pattern to recognize and reuse.

A rough Levantine pronunciation would be:

bil-maṭbakh fī ʿelbe kbīre lal-baṣal w-ʿelbe zġīre lal-baṭāṭa

A few helpful notes:

• علبة is often pronounced something like ʿelbe
• كبيرة is often kbīre
• صغيرة may sound like ṣġīre or zġīre, depending on region
• للـ is often pronounced lal- in everyday speech

Pronunciation varies across Levantine dialects, but that version will get you close.