المصباح اليدوي قرب الشمعة.

It is noun + adjective, not an iḍāfa.

• المصباح = the lamp / the flashlight
• اليدوي = hand-held, manual

So المصباح اليدوي means the hand-held lamp, which is the usual Modern Standard Arabic way to say flashlight.

Why is this not an iḍāfa?

• In an iḍāfa, the first noun normally does not take الـ
• Here both words have الـ
• Also, اليدوي matches المصباح in definiteness, gender, number, and case, which is what adjectives do in Arabic

So this is best understood as the flashlight, not as a genitive phrase like the lamp of the hand.

Because in Arabic, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So:

• المصباح اليدوي = literally the lamp hand-held
• natural English order = the hand-held lamp / the flashlight

This is the usual Arabic pattern:

• noun first
• adjective second

A learner coming from English often expects the descriptive word first, but Arabic does the opposite.

Because Arabic adjectives agree with the noun they describe in definiteness.

Here, المصباح is definite because it has الـ:

• المصباح = the lamp

So the adjective must also be definite:

• اليدوي = the hand-held / manual

That is why you get:

• المصباح اليدوي

not

• المصباح يدوي

If the noun were indefinite, the adjective would also be indefinite:

• مصباح يدوي = a flashlight / a hand-held lamp

It is not written, because Arabic usually omits the present-tense verb to be.

So:

• المصباح اليدوي قرب الشمعة
• literally: the flashlight near the candle
• natural English: The flashlight is near the candle

This is a very common Arabic pattern called a nominal sentence.

In the present tense, Arabic usually leaves out is / am / are.

But in other tenses, Arabic does use a verb such as كان:

• كان المصباح اليدوي قرب الشمعة = The flashlight was near the candle

It is often translated like a preposition, as near, but traditionally it is analyzed as a ẓarf (an adverbial noun of place), meaning something like near / in the vicinity of.

So:

• قرب الشمعة = near the candle

Grammatically, this is a little different from a simple preposition, but for a learner, the easiest way to understand it is:

• قرب + noun = near + noun

A very common alternative structure is:

• المصباح اليدوي قريب من الشمعة
• The flashlight is close to the candle

Both are natural, though the wording is slightly different.

Because it comes after قرب in this construction.

With full case endings, the phrase is:

• قُرْبَ الشَّمْعَةِ

Here:

• قرب is in the accusative as an adverbial expression of place
• الشمعةِ is in the genitive

Even if a beginner is not studying case yet, it is useful to know that the second noun here is treated grammatically like a noun after a governing word.

So if fully vocalized, the sentence is:

• المِصْباحُ اليَدَوِيُّ قُرْبَ الشَّمْعَةِ

Because ش is a sun letter.

When الـ is followed by a sun letter, the l sound is not pronounced. Instead, the following consonant is doubled.

So:

• الشمعة is pronounced ash-shamʿa
• not al-shamʿa

By contrast, in المصباح, the م is a moon letter, so the l is pronounced:

• al-miṣbāḥ

This difference between sun letters and moon letters is one of the first pronunciation patterns Arabic learners usually meet.

It comes from يد meaning hand.

So يدوي has the sense of:

• manual
• hand-operated
• hand-held

In this sentence, المصباح اليدوي is the standard expression for flashlight in Modern Standard Arabic.

So even though the literal sense is something like hand-held lamp, the normal meaning is simply flashlight.

A fully vocalized version is:

• المِصْباحُ اليَدَوِيُّ قُرْبَ الشَّمْعَةِ

Word by word:

• المِصْباحُ = the flashlight / the lamp
  
  • nominative, because it is the subject/topic of the nominal sentence
• اليَدَوِيُّ = hand-held
  
  • nominative, because it agrees with المصباح
• قُرْبَ = near
  
  • accusative as an adverbial noun of place
• الشَّمْعَةِ = the candle
  
  • genitive after قرب

In everyday reading, these short vowels are usually not written, so you normally just see:

• المصباح اليدوي قرب الشمعة

Yes. That is another very natural way to express the same basic idea.

Compare:

• المصباح اليدوي قرب الشمعة
• المصباح اليدوي قريب من الشمعة

The second version uses:

• قريب = close
• من = to / from, giving the sense close to

So both are acceptable, and both mean roughly The flashlight is near the candle.

The version with قريب من may feel more straightforward to some learners because it resembles an adjective + preposition pattern:

• close to
• قريب من

The version with قرب is also very common and worth learning.