البنك قريب من المحطة.

In Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually omitted.

So البنك قريب من المحطة literally looks like:

the bank near from the station

but it naturally means:

The bank is near the station.

This is completely normal in both Levantine and Standard Arabic. If you wanted was, you would add a verb, for example:

كان البنك قريب من المحطة = The bank was near the station.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the in English.

So:

• بنك = a bank / bank
• البنك = the bank
• محطة = a station / station
• المحطة = the station

In this sentence, both nouns are definite, so both take الـ.

Because قريب here is not an attributive adjective like the nearby bank. It is the predicate of the sentence: the bank is near.

Compare these:

• البنك قريب من المحطة = The bank is near the station
• البنك القريب من المحطة = The bank near the station / the bank that is near the station

So when قريب is the main description in the sentence, it does not take الـ.

Because قريب agrees with البنك, and البنك is grammatically masculine.

Arabic adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender and number. Here, the thing that is near is the bank, not the station.

So:

• البنك قريب = The bank is near
• المحطة قريبة = The station is near

If you flipped the sentence around, you would say:

المحطة قريبة من البنك = The station is near the bank

Yes, من often means from, but after قريب it is used in the sense of near to.

So:

• قريب من = near / close to

This is a very common pattern in Arabic.

For example:

• البيت قريب من المدرسة = The house is near the school
• نحنا قريبين من البحر = We are close to the sea

So in this sentence, من is part of the expression قريب من.

A common Levantine-style pronunciation would be something like:

il-bank ʔarīb min il-maḥaṭṭa

In some accents, especially depending on region or speaker, you may also hear:

il-bank qarīb min il-maḥaṭṭa

A few pronunciation notes:

• الـ is often pronounced il- in Levantine
• ق in قريب is often pronounced as a glottal stop ʔ in many urban Levantine accents, but some speakers keep q
• ح in المحطة is a stronger, breathier sound than English h
• طّ is doubled, so you hold the t sound slightly longer

The final ة is called taa marbuuTa. In pause, which is how words are usually pronounced at the end of a phrase, it is normally pronounced like -a or -eh in Levantine.

So:

• محطة is pronounced roughly maḥaṭṭa

Not maḥaṭṭat in this sentence.

You mainly hear the t sound of ة when the word is followed by certain grammatical endings or when it is part of a construction, such as:

• محطة القطار = the train station

There, many learners will notice a clearer t connection in careful speech.

Because of the shadda on ط: طّ.

A shadda means the consonant is doubled or held a little longer. So محطة is not pronounced like maḥaṭa. It is more like:

ma-ḥaṭ-ṭa

That doubled consonant matters in Arabic, because it can change words and meanings.

No, بنك is a loanword, borrowed into Arabic from European languages. But once borrowed, it behaves like a normal Arabic noun.

So you can still add the Arabic definite article:

• بنك = bank
• البنك = the bank

This is very common in Levantine and other varieties of Arabic: loanwords still follow Arabic grammar.

It works in both.

البنك قريب من المحطة is perfectly understandable and natural as a simple sentence in Standard Arabic, and it is also fine in Levantine.

What changes more noticeably in Levantine is usually:

• pronunciation
• intonation
• sometimes vocabulary choices in other contexts

But this exact sentence is basic and natural enough to fit both.

No, not in Levantine.

In everyday Levantine speech, case endings are not used. So you simply say:

البنك قريب من المحطة

without adding final vowel endings.

Even many learners of Standard Arabic first learn the sentence without case endings in normal conversation-style pronunciation.