الدبوس قرب السحاب وطباشير الخياط.

In Arabic, a present-tense sentence like The pin is near... often has no written or spoken verb for is.

So:

• الدبوس = the pin
• قرب السحاب وطباشير الخياط = near the clouds and the tailor's chalk

Together, Arabic simply says the equivalent of The pin near the clouds and the tailor's chalk, and the meaning is is understood.

Here قرب means near or close to.

In this sentence, it is best understood as an adverbial noun / ظرف مكان functioning like near in English. It is not a regular preposition like في (in) or على (on), and it is also not being used here as a verb.

So:

• قرب السحاب = near the clouds

A related and very common alternative is:

• قريب من = close to

For example:

• الدبوس قريب من السحاب = The pin is close to the clouds

Because قرب is followed by the thing that is being located relative to it.

So:

• قرب السحاب literally works like near the clouds

This is the normal pattern in Arabic for this kind of expression.

Because و joins the two nouns together, so قرب applies to both.

The structure is:

• قرب السحاب وطباشير الخياط
• near the clouds and the tailor's chalk

Just like in English, you do not need to repeat near before the second item.

It is an iḍāfa construction, often called a construct phrase.

That means:

• طباشير = chalk or chalk pieces
• الخياط = the tailor

Together:

• طباشير الخياط = the tailor's chalk

In Arabic, possession is very often expressed this way, with two nouns placed next to each other.

That is a normal feature of iḍāfa.

In an iḍāfa phrase:

• the first noun usually does not take الـ
• the second noun can be definite with الـ

So:

• طباشير الخياط is correct for the tailor's chalk
• not الطباشير الخياط in this structure

Also, the whole phrase becomes definite because الخياط is definite.

Formally, طباشير is usually treated as a plural form, related to طبشور (a piece of chalk or chalk).

But in real usage, it can behave a bit like a collective noun in translation. So depending on context, طباشير الخياط could be understood as:

• the tailor's chalk
• the tailor's chalk pieces
• the tailor's tailor's chalk supply, in a broader sense

In a beginner sentence, it is often best to understand it simply as the tailor's chalk.

A simple grammatical breakdown is:

• الدبوس — the subject of the sentence (the pin)
• قرب — an adverbial expression of place (near)
• السحاب — the first noun governed by قرب
• و — and
• طباشير — coordinated with السحاب
• الخياط — second part of the iḍāfa: the tailor

So the overall meaning is:

• The pin is near the clouds and the tailor's chalk

A likely fully vocalized version is:

• الدبوسُ قربَ السحابِ وطباشيرِ الخياطِ

Why these endings?

• الدبوسُ: subject, so often -u
• قربَ: used here as an adverbial noun of place
• السحابِ: after قرب in this construction
• طباشيرِ: coordinated with السحابِ, so it matches its case
• الخياطِ: second term of iḍāfa, so genitive

In everyday Arabic writing, these short vowels are usually omitted.

The pronunciation changes depending on whether the next letter is a sun letter or a moon letter.

Here:

• الدبوس is pronounced ad-dabbūs, not al-dabbūs, because د is a sun letter
• السحاب is pronounced as-saḥāb, because س is a sun letter
• الخياط is pronounced al-khayyāṭ, because خ is a moon letter

So a rough pronunciation of the whole sentence is:

• ad-dabbūsu qurb(a) as-saḥābi wa-ṭabāshīri l-khayyāṭi

Yes. A very common alternative would be to use قريب من instead of قرب:

• الدبوس قريب من السحاب وطباشير الخياط

That also means The pin is near the clouds and the tailor's chalk.

So both patterns are possible:

• قرب + noun
• قريب من + noun

A learner should recognize both.

Because it means the pin, not just a pin.

Compare:

• الدبوس = the pin
• دبوس = a pin

So the sentence is talking about a specific pin.

السحاب is often treated as a collective noun meaning clouds or cloud-mass.

So even though English might naturally say the clouds, Arabic can use السحاب in that broader collective sense.

That is why translating it as the clouds is perfectly normal.