Passa'm el bol gran i posa'l sobre el taulell.

It is passa + 'm.

• passa = the tu imperative of passar
• 'm = a reduced form of em, meaning me

So Passa'm means pass me or hand me. English often uses to me, but Catalan just uses the clitic pronoun 'm.

It is posa + 'l.

• posa = the tu imperative of posar, meaning put
• 'l = a reduced form of el, meaning him or it

Here it means it, and it refers back to el bol gran. So posa'l means put it.

Because in Catalan, affirmative commands normally put weak pronouns after the verb.

So you get:

• Passa'm
• Posa'l

But in many other sentence types, the pronouns usually go before the verb:

• Me'l passes = you pass it to me

And in a negative command, they also go before:

• No me'l passis = don’t pass it to me

They are imperative forms for tu, so they are commands addressed to one person informally.

That means the sentence is speaking to one person in a familiar way, like:

• Pass me the big bowl and put it on the counter

If you wanted a more formal singular command, the forms would change.

Because in Catalan, descriptive adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• el bol gran = the big bowl

Putting gran before the noun is less neutral and can change the feel or meaning. Very often, gran before a noun can suggest something more like great or a more expressive kind of big, while after the noun it is the normal physical description.

Because bol and taulell are masculine singular nouns, so they take the article el.

This also explains why the pronoun in posa'l is masculine singular: it refers to el bol.

If the noun were feminine, both the article and the pronoun would change.

Taulell usually means counter, countertop, or worktop, depending on context.

In this sentence, the most natural meaning is probably the counter or the countertop.

Here sobre means on, onto, or on top of.

So:

• sobre el taulell = on the counter / on top of the counter

Catalan also has other ways to express a similar idea, such as damunt del taulell, but sobre is completely normal here.

Catalan el as a pronoun can mean him or it, depending on what it refers to.

In this sentence, it clearly refers to el bol gran, which is an object, so in English we translate it as it:

• posa'l = put it

In standard Catalan, ll is a special sound, traditionally like a ly sound. For many English speakers, a useful approximation is the sound you hear in the middle of million.

So the ll in taulell is not a plain English l. Depending on the dialect, it may sound more clearly ly or a bit closer to y, but learners should first aim for a ly-like sound.