الفندق قريب من الجسر، والجسر قريب من النهر.

Because Arabic often omits the verb to be in the present tense.

So:

• الفندق قريب من الجسر literally looks like the hotel near the bridge but it means The hotel is near the bridge.

This kind of sentence is called a nominal sentence in Arabic. In the present tense, Arabic normally does not use a separate word for is / are / am.

If you wanted the past tense, then Arabic would use a verb, for example:

• كان الفندق قريبًا من الجسر = The hotel was near the bridge

Each half of the sentence follows this pattern:

• definite noun
  • adjective/predicate
    • prepositional phrase

So:

• الفندق = the hotel
• قريب = near
• من الجسر = from / near the bridge

And then:

• الجسر = the bridge
• قريب = near
• من النهر = from / near the river

So the two parts are:

• الفندق قريب من الجسر
• والجسر قريب من النهر

The و simply joins them as and.

قريب means near or close.

It stays the same here because both nouns it describes as the predicate are:

• singular
• masculine

Those nouns are:

• الفندق = masculine singular
• الجسر = masculine singular

So the masculine singular form قريب is the correct one in both places.

If the noun were feminine, you would usually use قريبة instead:

• المدرسة قريبة من البيت = The school is near the house

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

So:

• قريب من الجسر = near the bridge
• literally, something like close from the bridge, but idiomatically it means near the bridge

This is just the normal Arabic pattern:

• قريب من = near
• بعيد من is less common in MSA than بعيد عن, so learners should be careful not to assume all distance words behave the same way.

So in this sentence, من is simply the preposition that commonly follows قريب.

Because they are all definite:

• الفندق = the hotel
• الجسر = the bridge
• النهر = the river

English sometimes allows either a definite or indefinite version depending on context, but Arabic is being specific here.

If you removed ال, the meaning would become indefinite:

• فندق قريب من جسر = a hotel near a bridge

That is a different meaning from the sentence you were given.

Arabic often repeats the noun where English would naturally use a pronoun.

So English says:

• The hotel is near the bridge, and it is near the river

But Arabic commonly says:

• الفندق قريب من الجسر، والجسر قريب من النهر
• literally: The hotel is near the bridge, and the bridge is near the river

Repeating الجسر makes the meaning very clear.

If Arabic used a pronoun, it could create ambiguity:

• Does it refer to the hotel or the bridge?

So repetition is natural and often preferred for clarity.

A careful pronunciation is:

• al-funduqu qarībun mina l-jisri, wal-jisru qarībun mina n-nahri

A more natural connected pronunciation may sound closer to:

• al-funduq qarīb min al-jisr, wal-jisr qarīb min an-nahr

A few notes:

• الفندق = al-funduq
• الجسر = al-jisr
• النهر = an-nahr in pronunciation, because the l of ال assimilates to n

Also:

• ق in قريب is a deep q sound, not an English k
• ج in MSA is usually taught as j as in judge
• قريب has a long ee sound: qa-reeb

Because Arabic letters are divided into moon letters and sun letters.

• In الجسر, the first letter after ال is ج, which is a moon letter, so the l sound is pronounced:

  • al-jisr

• In النهر, the first letter after ال is ن, which is a sun letter, so the l sound is not pronounced; instead, the n is doubled:

  • an-nahr

So even though both words are written with ال, they are pronounced differently:

• الجسر → al-jisr
• النهر → an-nahr

In fully vocalized MSA, it would be:

• الفُنْدُقُ قَرِيبٌ مِنَ الجِسْرِ، وَالجِسْرُ قَرِيبٌ مِنَ النَّهْرِ.

These endings show the grammar more clearly:

• الفندقُ = nominative
• قريبٌ = nominative, because it is the predicate
• الجسرِ = genitive, because it comes after من
• الجسرُ = nominative in the second clause
• النهرِ = genitive after من

In normal everyday writing, these short vowels are usually omitted, so learners see:

• الفندق قريب من الجسر، والجسر قريب من النهر

Because standard Arabic spelling usually leaves out short vowels and most case endings.

So although a grammatically complete form is:

• الفندقُ قريبٌ من الجسرِ

you will normally just see:

• الفندق قريب من الجسر

This is completely normal. Native readers understand the grammar from context.

For learners, this means two things:

1. The written sentence may look simpler than its full grammatical form.
2. You still need to know the underlying grammar, especially in formal MSA.

It is a nominal sentence.

A nominal sentence in Arabic typically begins with a noun, not a verb. Here, both clauses begin with nouns:

• الفندق
• الجسر

Then each noun is followed by information about it:

• قريب من الجسر
• قريب من النهر

So this is not an action sentence like The hotel stands... or The bridge crosses... It is a description sentence: The hotel is near... and the bridge is near...

Yes, Arabic word order can sometimes change, but the version you have is the most straightforward and beginner-friendly.

The normal order here is:

• الفندق قريب من الجسر

This starts with the thing being talked about, then gives information about it.

Arabic can sometimes front the predicate for style or emphasis, but that is less basic and usually not the first pattern learners should use.

So for now, the best takeaway is:

• noun + predicate + prepositional phrase

That pattern is very common and very useful in MSA.

Yes. Arabic often uses this comma:

• ،

instead of the English comma:

• ,

So in your sentence:

• الفندق قريب من الجسر، والجسر قريب من النهر.

the punctuation is normal Arabic punctuation.

The meaning is the same as if you wrote it with an English-style comma, but in proper Arabic typography, ، is preferred.