المستقبل قريب.

In fully vocalized MSA, it is المستقبلُ قريبٌ and is pronounced al-mustaqbalu qarībun.

At the end of a sentence, Arabic usually pauses, so the final short vowels are often not pronounced. In natural pause, you will often hear:

al-mustaqbal qarīb

A helpful rough pronunciation guide is:

• al = like al in Al Jazeera
• mustaqbal = mus-taq-bal
• qarīb = qa-reeb

The letter ق in قريب is a deep q sound, not exactly the same as English k.

Because in Arabic, the present-tense to be is usually not said in simple sentences like this.

So Arabic says, literally:

the future near

but the meaning is:

the future is near

This is completely normal in Arabic. If you wanted another tense, then Arabic would use a verb, for example:

• كان المستقبلُ قريبًا = the future was near
• سيكون المستقبلُ قريبًا = the future will be near

This is a nominal sentence in Arabic, called جملة اسمية.

It has two main parts:

• المستقبلُ = the subject/topic of the sentence, called مبتدأ
• قريبٌ = the predicate/comment about the subject, called خبر

So the structure is:

• المبتدأ: المستقبلُ
• الخبر: قريبٌ

This is one of the most basic and common Arabic sentence patterns.

Because المستقبل is the subject and means the future, so it is definite.

قريب is the predicate here, not a noun being directly modified. In Arabic, the predicate is often indefinite, even when the subject is definite.

So:

• المستقبلُ قريبٌ = The future is near

If you made both words definite:

• المستقبلُ القريبُ

that would no longer be a full sentence. It would become a noun phrase meaning:

• the near future

So the lack of الـ on قريب helps show that this is a sentence, not just a phrase.

This is a very important difference.

• المستقبلُ قريبٌ = The future is near
  This is a complete sentence.

• المستقبلُ القريبُ = the near future
  This is just a noun phrase, not a complete sentence.

In the second one, القريب is an adjective directly describing المستقبل. Because المستقبل is definite, the adjective must also be definite.

So:

• definite noun + indefinite predicate = sentence
• definite noun + definite adjective = noun phrase

The fully vocalized form is:

المستقبلُ قريبٌ

Both words are in the nominative case:

• المستقبلُ ends in ـُ
• قريبٌ ends in ـٌ

That is because:

• the مبتدأ is nominative
• the خبر is also nominative

In ordinary Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually omitted, so you normally see:

المستقبل قريب

At the end of a sentence, the tanwīn on قريبٌ is usually not pronounced in pause, so you often hear simply qarīb.

It is an adjective in meaning, but here it is being used as the predicate of the sentence.

In English, adjectives can come after is:

• The future is near

Arabic does something similar, but without saying is in the present tense:

• المستقبلُ قريبٌ

So قريب is not an adverb here. It is describing the subject.

A useful comparison:

• المستقبلُ قريبٌ = The future is near
• سيأتي قريبًا = It will come soon

In قريبًا, the word is in a different form and works more like soon.

Because م is a moon letter.

In Arabic, the definite article الـ is pronounced in two different ways:

• with moon letters, the l sound is pronounced
• with sun letters, the l sound assimilates into the next consonant

Since م is a moon letter, you say:

• al-mustaqbal

not something like am-mustaqbal

Compare that with a sun-letter word such as:

• الشمس pronounced ash-shams

The predicate usually agrees with the subject in gender and number, depending on the type of noun.

For example:

• الحياةُ قريبةٌ = Life is near
• الفرصةُ قريبةٌ = The opportunity is near

With a masculine human plural:

• الضيوفُ قريبون = The guests are near

With many non-human plurals in MSA, Arabic often uses feminine singular agreement:

• الأيامُ قريبةٌ = The days are near

So in your sentence, قريب is masculine singular because المستقبل is masculine singular.

This is a normal challenge for learners of Arabic.

Arabic usually writes only the consonants and long vowels, so you learn the missing short vowels from:

• vocabulary knowledge
• grammar
• context

In this sentence:

• المستقبل is the common word mustaqbal = future
• قريب is the common word qarīb = near
• grammar tells you that both are nominative here, so the fully vocalized form is المستقبلُ قريبٌ

So reading unvocalized Arabic becomes easier as you build vocabulary and learn sentence patterns.

Yes.

• قريب comes from the root ق ر ب, which has the basic idea of nearness or closeness
• المستقبل is related to the root ق ب ل, which can have meanings connected with facing, coming before, or what lies ahead

Knowing this can help you connect related words. For example, with ق ر ب you may later meet words related to:

• being near
• approaching
• closeness

Root awareness is not necessary to understand this sentence, but it can make vocabulary easier to remember over time.