المركز قريب من المستشفى.

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

So المركز قريب من المستشفى literally looks like:

• the center
• near
• from the hospital

But the natural English meaning is The center is near the hospital.

This is very normal in both Standard Arabic and Levantine. If you wanted the past or future, then Arabic would use a verb, but in the present it is usually omitted.

The structure is:

• المركز = the center
• قريب = near
• من المستشفى = from the hospital / near the hospital

So the pattern is:

noun + adjective/location word + من + place

In smoother English terms, you can think of it as:

[subject] + [predicate adjective] + [prepositional phrase]

Here, قريب works like near, and من introduces what it is near to.

Because المركز is a masculine noun.

In Arabic, adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender and definiteness. Since المركز is masculine singular, the adjective is also masculine singular:

• مركز قريب = a near/close center
• المركز قريب = the center is near

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

• المدرسة قريبة من المستشفى = the school is near the hospital

Great question. In Arabic, adjectives take الـ when they directly describe a noun inside a noun phrase, for example:

• المركز القريب = the nearby center

But in your sentence, قريب is not part of the noun phrase المركز. It is the predicate of the sentence:

• المركز قريب = the center is near

So here, قريب does not take الـ.

This is a very important distinction:

• المركز القريب = the nearby center
• المركز قريب = the center is near

Yes, من very often means from, but after words like قريب it is also used in the sense of to or from in English spatial expressions.

So:

• قريب من المستشفى = near the hospital

This is the normal Arabic pattern. English says near the hospital, but Arabic says something closer to near from the hospital.

You should learn قريب من as a set expression:

• قريب من البيت = near the house
• قريب من الجامعة = near the university

The spelling is basically Standard Arabic, but it is completely understandable in Levantine too.

In Levantine pronunciation, you might hear something like:

• il-markaz 'rīb mn il-mustashfa
• or el-markaz 2areeb men el-mustashfa

depending on region and style.

A few Levantine features:

• الـ is often pronounced il- or el-
• من is often pronounced mn or men
• قريب may sound like 'rīb or 2arīb, depending on the speaker and region

So yes, the sentence works for a Levantine learner, even though the written form looks formal.

In many urban Levantine varieties, ق is often pronounced as a glottal stop, like a catch in the throat.

So قريب may sound like:

• 'rīb or 2arīb

However, pronunciation of ق depends a lot on region, social background, and the specific word. Some speakers keep a stronger q sound, while others use a glottal stop almost all the time.

So for Levantine, don’t be surprised if:

• قريب sounds more like 'areeb / 'rīb
• not like a hard q sound

Yes, it is a bit tricky because of the consonant cluster.

A helpful Levantine-style pronunciation is:

• il-mustashfa
• or el-mustashfa

Try breaking it into parts:

• mus
• tash
• fa

The final ى here is pronounced like a final short a sound, so المستشفى ends like -shfa, not like -shfee.

A slow version:

• mus-tash-fa

Then more naturally:

• mustashfa

Usually something like:

• il-markaz
• or el-markaz

A native English speaker should pay attention to these points:

• the r is tapped or rolled lightly
• the k is clear
• the stress is usually around mar
• the final z is pronounced clearly

So it is not mar-kəz in an English way, but closer to mar-kaz.

Not for this meaning.

For near the hospital, the normal choice is قريب من المستشفى.

The preposition من is the expected one after قريب. Using على / عـ here would not sound natural for this exact structure.

So learn:

• قريب من = near

not:

• قريب على for this meaning

Not normally. The natural order is:

• المركز قريب من المستشفى

You start with the subject, then give information about it.

If you change the order, it may sound unnatural or require a different structure and intonation. For a learner, the safest pattern is:

[thing] + قريب من + [place]

Examples:

• البيت قريب من المدرسة
• المطعم قريب من الجامعة
• المركز قريب من المستشفى

A very natural everyday Levantine pronunciation would be:

• المركز قريب من المستشفى
• pronounced roughly: il-markaz 'rīb mn il-mustashfa

Some speakers might say 2arīb instead of 'rīb, and men instead of mn.

So you may hear:

• il-markaz 2arīb men il-mustashfa
• el-markaz 'rīb mn el-mustashfa

All of these are in the same family of natural pronunciations.

You can add كتير in Levantine:

• المركز قريب كتير من المستشفى = the center is very near the hospital

You may also hear:

• المركز كتير قريب من المستشفى

Both are common in speech.

So this sentence is a useful base pattern that you can expand:

• المركز قريب من المستشفى
• المركز قريب كتير من المستشفى
• المركز مو قريب من المستشفى = the center is not near the hospital

A common Levantine way is to use مو:

• المركز مو قريب من المستشفى = the center is not near the hospital

In some areas, you might hear مش instead:

• المركز مش قريب من المستشفى

Both are widely understood in the Levant. For many learners, مو is a very useful everyday choice.

A very useful chunk is:

[place/thing] + قريب من + [place]

For example:

• بيتي قريب من الشغل = my house is near work
• الجامعة قريبة من البيت = the university is near the house
• المطعم قريب من هون = the restaurant is near here

So from this sentence, one of the best things to memorize is the expression:

قريب من = near

That will help you build many similar sentences quickly.