هي بتفضل القهوة من دون سكر، وانا بفضل الشاي مع شوية سكر.

In Levantine, بـ is the usual marker for the present/habitual tense.

So:

• هي بتفضل = she prefers
• أنا بفضل = I prefer

It often covers what English does with the simple present:

• I prefer
• she likes/prefers
• I usually drink, etc.

This بـ is a very common feature of spoken Levantine and helps make the sentence sound natural in dialect.

Because the verb changes with the subject.

Here are the two forms in this sentence:

• بفضل = I prefer
• بتفضل = she prefers

In the imperfect/present-style verb system, Levantine uses different prefixes for different people. The تـ in بتفضل marks a third-person feminine subject here, so with هي, it means she prefers.

One thing to notice: بتفضل can also mean you prefer when speaking to one man. The pronoun هي removes that ambiguity.

You can often leave them out.

Arabic verbs already show the subject, so these are both possible:

• هي بتفضل القهوة من دون سكر، وأنا بفضل الشاي...
• بتفضل القهوة من دون سكر، وبفضل الشاي...

Including هي and أنا makes the contrast clearer: she prefers coffee, I prefer tea. In this sentence, the pronouns help create that contrast, so they sound very natural.

That is very normal in Arabic.

In Arabic, generic nouns often appear with الـ when talking about something in general:

• القهوة = coffee
• الشاي = tea

So بتفضل القهوة does not mean only the specific coffee in front of us. It can simply mean she prefers coffee as a drink in general.

This is one of the places where Arabic and English structure things differently.

Yes. من دون means without.

So:

• من دون سكر = without sugar

It is natural and widely understood. In Levantine, you may also hear:

• بلا سكر = without sugar
• من غير سكر = without sugar

All three are possible. بلا is especially common in everyday speech, but من دون is also perfectly fine.

شوية means a little, a bit, or some.

In this sentence:

• مع شوية سكر = with a little sugar

It is very common in spoken Arabic. You can use it with nouns:

• شوية مي = a little water
• شوية وقت = a little time

And also more generally:

• استنى شوية = wait a bit

So it is a very useful everyday word.

In Levantine, شوية + noun is the normal colloquial pattern.

So:

• شوية سكر = a little sugar

Because sugar is a mass noun, Arabic commonly leaves it bare after شوية. Adding من is possible in more formal or more careful phrasing, but in everyday Levantine, شوية سكر sounds more natural.

Because short particles like و are written attached to the following word in Arabic.

So:

• و = and
• وأنا / وانا = and I

This is normal Arabic spelling behavior. The same thing happens with many other little words and prefixes.

In careful standard spelling, وأنا is the more correct form.

But in casual writing, texting, and informal dialect writing, many people write:

• وانا

The same is true for أنا becoming انا in casual writing. So:

• وأنا = more standard-looking
• وانا = very common informal spelling

A learner should recognize both.

Because ش is a sun letter, so the ل of الـ assimilates.

That means الشاي is pronounced more like:

• ish-shay
• or esh-shay, depending on dialect and speaker

Not al-shay.

By contrast, in القهوة, the ل is pronounced, because ق is not a sun letter.

So:

• الشاي → ish-shay / esh-shay
• القهوة → il-'ahwe / al-qahwe-type pronunciation, depending on dialect

The spelling is قهوة, but pronunciation varies by region.

In many urban Levantine accents, ق is often pronounced as a glottal stop, so قهوة may sound like:

• 'ahwe

In other accents, especially some rural or more conservative ones, you may hear:

• qahwe
• or sometimes gahwe

So the spelling stays the same, but the sound of ق can change a lot across the Levant.

Yes, it has clear spoken-Levantine features, especially:

• the present marker بـ
• the colloquial word شوية
• the casual spelling وانا

A more MSA-style version would be something like:

• هي تفضّل القهوة من دون سكر، وأنا أفضّل الشاي مع قليل من السكر.

Main differences:

• Levantine uses بفضل / بتفضل
• MSA uses أفضّل / تفضّل
• Levantine often uses شوية
• MSA would more likely use قليل من

Not exactly.

• بحب = I like / I love
• بفضل = I prefer

So:

• بحب القهوة = I like coffee
• بفضل القهوة = I prefer coffee

Prefer usually implies a comparison, even if the other option is not stated directly. In this sentence, that comparison is clear because coffee and tea are both mentioned.

Yes, it is the same root, but the meaning depends on context and form.

In this sentence:

• بتفضل / بفضل = prefer

But you may also hear:

• تفضل! = here you go / go ahead / please
• اتفضل! = please come in / go ahead

So the root is the same, but the usage is different. In the coffee-and-tea sentence, it clearly means prefer, not go ahead.

Because this is spoken Levantine, not formal fully vocalized MSA.

In everyday spoken Arabic:

• case endings are not used
• final short vowels are usually dropped
• writing is often less formal and less fully marked

So a sentence like this naturally appears without the endings you might see in grammar textbooks. That is normal for dialect writing.