فرع البنك قريب.

A common Levantine pronunciation is far3 il-bank 2arīb.

A few helpful notes:

• فرع = far3 or faraʕ
• البنك = il-bank or el-bank
• قريب = 2arīb / ʔarīb in many Levantine accents

The tricky sounds are:

• ع in فرع: a deep throat sound not found in English
• ق in قريب: in much of Levantine, this is often pronounced like a glottal stop ʔ, not a hard q

So if you want a learner-friendly version, far3 il-bank ʔarīb is a good approximation.

فرع means branch.

When talking about businesses or institutions, it means a local office or location, such as:

• فرع البنك = bank branch
• فرع الشركة = company branch
• فرع الجامعة = university branch/campus branch

So in this sentence, فرع is not a tree branch. It means a business branch.

Because Arabic usually leaves out the present-tense verb to be.

So فرع البنك قريب literally looks like:

bank branch near

but it naturally means:

The bank branch is near.

This is very normal in Arabic. In the present tense, Arabic often uses a nominal sentence with no separate word for is/am/are.

If you wanted a past meaning, then Arabic would use a verb, for example:

• كان فرع البنك قريب = The bank branch was near

Because فرع البنك is an iḍāfa construction, often called a possessive or construct phrase.

In an iḍāfa:

• the first noun usually does not take الـ
• the second noun shows whether the whole phrase is definite or indefinite

So:

• فرع البنك = the branch of the bank / the bank branch
• not الفرع البنك

That is why فرع stays without الـ here.

It is definite.

Even though فرع itself does not have الـ, the whole iḍāfa becomes definite because the second noun is definite:

• البنك = the bank

So:

• فرع البنك = the bank branch or the branch of the bank

If the second noun were indefinite, the whole phrase would be indefinite too.

Because loanwords can still behave like normal Arabic nouns.

بنك is a borrowed word, but Arabic can still add the definite article الـ to it:

• بنك = a bank
• البنك = the bank

In Levantine pronunciation, الـ is often heard as il- or el-, so البنك becomes il-bank / el-bank.

Because it agrees with فرع, which is masculine singular.

In Arabic, adjectives usually agree with the noun they describe in gender and number. Here:

• فرع = masculine singular
• so قريب is also masculine singular

If the noun were feminine, you would normally use قريبة instead:

• الجامعة قريبة = The university is near

So قريب is shaped this way because of فرع.

It can work in all of those ways, depending on the sentence.

In فرع البنك قريب, it means nearby / close.

If you want to say what something is close to, you usually add من:

• فرع البنك قريب من البيت = The bank branch is close to the house

So:

• قريب on its own = near / nearby / close
• قريب من... = close to...

It works in both.

The writing فرع البنك قريب is perfectly understandable in both Standard Arabic and Levantine. What changes most is the pronunciation, not the basic structure.

For example:

• Standard Arabic pronunciation would be closer to farʿu l-banki qarīb(un) in fully formal grammar
• Levantine everyday speech is more like far3 il-bank ʔarīb

So for a learner of Levantine, this is a very natural sentence, even though the same wording is also widely understandable outside Levantine speech.

For a simple, neutral statement, فرع البنك قريب is the most natural order.

This is:

• subject: فرع البنك
• predicate: قريب

You may sometimes hear other word orders for emphasis or style, but as a learner, the safest pattern is:

noun phrase + adjective/predicate

So if you want to say similar things, you can copy this pattern:

• المطعم قريب = The restaurant is near
• بيت صاحبي بعيد = My friend’s house is far
• فرع الشركة مفتوح = The company branch is open