بعد العشاء آخذ الطبق والملعقة إلى المطبخ، ثم أغسلهما.

بعد means after. In this sentence, بعد العشاء is a time expression meaning after dinner.

Grammatically, بعد is followed by a noun in the genitive, so in fully vowelled Arabic you would have:

بعدَ العشاءِ

You can think of it as a set phrase: after + noun.

Here العشاء means dinner/supper, and Arabic commonly uses the definite article الـ in expressions like this.

So بعد العشاء is the natural way to say after dinner.

In context, العشاء can also mean the night prayer in some situations, but here it clearly means the evening meal.

Yes. Here آخذ means I take.

In fully vowelled MSA, it would normally be written:

آخُذُ

Without vowel marks, آخذ can look ambiguous, because the same spelling can also represent an active participle in other contexts. But in this sentence, the meaning and structure make it clear that it is the verb I take.

Because Arabic often uses the where English might also use the, especially when talking about specific everyday objects in a known situation.

So:

• الطبق = the plate
• الملعقة = the spoon

The speaker is not talking about just any plate and spoon, but the ones being used in this situation.

و simply means and.

So:

• الطبق والملعقة = the plate and the spoon

This is a straightforward coordination of two nouns.

إلى means to or toward, and it is used for movement to a place.

So:

• إلى المطبخ = to the kitchen

Since the speaker is taking the plate and spoon in the direction of the kitchen, إلى is the correct preposition.

ثم means then and shows sequence: one action happens, and after that, the next action happens.

So the sentence means:

1. I take the plate and spoon to the kitchen.
2. Then I wash them.

If you used و, it would just mean and, without emphasizing the order as clearly. ثم is better when you want a clear next step.

أغسلهما consists of:

• أغسل = I wash
• هما = them two

So literally it means I wash them both.

Arabic very often attaches object pronouns directly to the verb, instead of using a separate word.

Because the speaker is referring back to two things: the plate and the spoon.

Arabic has a special dual form for exactly two items. That is why it uses هما rather than a plural pronoun.

So:

• one thing: a singular pronoun
• two things: هما
• three or more things: a plural pronoun

This is one of the important features of Arabic that English does not have.

Because الطبق is masculine and الملعقة is feminine, but together they make a pair of two items, so Arabic uses the dual object pronoun هما.

For attached object pronouns, هما can refer to two things together, even if the two nouns are not the same gender.

So in this sentence, هما naturally refers to the plate and the spoon.

Arabic can do that, but using the attached pronoun is more natural and efficient here.

So instead of repeating:

ثم أغسل الطبق والملعقة

the sentence uses:

ثم أغسلهما

This sounds smoother and avoids unnecessary repetition, just like English often says then I wash them.

Yes, it matters for agreement in some contexts.

• الطبق is masculine
• الملعقة is feminine

You can often recognize feminine nouns because many of them end in ة, as الملعقة does.

In this sentence, the main place where this matters is understanding the nouns themselves. But when they are referred to together as two objects, the sentence uses the dual pronoun هما.

Because Arabic can very naturally begin with a time expression.

So the structure is:

• بعد العشاء = time frame
• آخذ... = main action

This is similar to English sentences like:

• After dinner, I take...
• In the morning, I read...

Putting the time phrase first helps set the scene before the action begins.

A fully vowelled version would be:

بَعْدَ العَشَاءِ آخُذُ الطَّبَقَ وَالمِلْعَقَةَ إِلَى المَطْبَخِ، ثُمَّ أَغْسِلُهُمَا.

This shows the usual MSA case endings and verb vowels:

• بعدَ
• العشاءِ
• آخُذُ
• الطبقَ
• الملعقةَ
• المطبخِ
• أغسلُهما

In everyday printed Arabic, these short vowels are usually omitted, so learners normally see the unvowelled version.