الكفة قرب الكم.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually not written or spoken in simple sentences like this. So الكفة قرب الكم literally looks like the cuff near the sleeve, but it naturally means the cuff is near the sleeve.

Arabic does use forms of to be in other tenses, such as the past: كانت الكفة قرب الكم = The cuff was near the sleeve.

It is a nominal sentence.

• الكفة is the subject of the sentence.
• قرب الكم is the predicate that tells you where it is.

In traditional Arabic grammar, this is:

• مبتدأ: الكفة
• خبر: قرب الكم

So the structure is very common: noun + location/explanation.

Here قرب functions like a locative expression meaning near or close to.

It is not exactly the same kind of word as an English preposition. In this structure, قرب behaves more like a noun used adverbially, and it forms an iḍāfa relationship with the word after it:

• قرب الكم = near the sleeve

Because of that:

• قرب comes directly before the noun
• the following noun is grammatically in the genitive

So this is a very standard Arabic way to express location.

It can be. Both are possible, but they use different structures.

1. الكفة قرب الكم

   • more compact
   • uses the locative expression قرب

2. الكفة قريبة من الكم

   • uses the adjective قريبة = near
   • followed by the preposition من = from / to

Since الكفة is grammatically feminine, the adjective has to be feminine too:

• قريب for masculine
• قريبة for feminine

So الكفة قريبة من الكم is also correct, just built differently.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the.

So:

• الكفة = the cuff
• الكم = the sleeve

Arabic uses الـ whenever the noun is definite. In this sentence, both items are understood as specific things, so both are definite.

It is pronounced roughly as al-kuffa when you pause at the end of the word.

A few important points:

• the ف has a shadda, so it is doubled: -ff-
• the final ة is tāʾ marbūṭa
• in pause, ة is usually pronounced like -a
• in fully inflected formal reading, it is pronounced with t, as in الكُفَّةُ = al-kuffatu

So:

• in pause: al-kuffa
• in full case-ending pronunciation: al-kuffatu

The letter ق is qāf. In careful Modern Standard Arabic, it is pronounced farther back in the mouth than English k.

So قرب is roughly:

• qurb in pause
• qurba if you pronounce the case ending in the sentence

If you are a beginner, using a strong k-like sound is a common approximation, but the standard sound is deeper and farther back than ك.

A fully vowelled version would be:

الكُفَّةُ قُرْبَ الكُمِّ

This shows the grammar more clearly:

• الكُفَّةُ

  • ends in ـُ
  • because it is the subject of the nominal sentence

• قُرْبَ

  • ends in ـَ
  • because it is functioning as a locative expression here

• الكُمِّ

  • ends in ـِ
  • because it comes after قرب in an iḍāfa-type structure

In normal everyday Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually omitted, so you normally just see: الكفة قرب الكم

Because قرب is connected to الكم in an iḍāfa structure.

In Arabic, the first part of an iḍāfa:

• does not take الـ
• does not take tanwīn

So you get:

• قرب الكم not something like
• قربٌ الكم

That is one clue that قرب here is grammatically tied to the noun after it.

Yes, but the given order is the simplest and most neutral for a learner.

الكفة قرب الكم is a straightforward way to say it.

Arabic can sometimes move parts of the sentence for emphasis or style, but beginners should be comfortable first with the basic pattern:

subject + location

So this sentence is a good model to remember.