على يمين الجسر ساحة، وعلى يسار الجسر مقهى.

In present-tense Modern Standard Arabic, the verb to be is usually not stated. So Arabic often makes sentences like this with just:

• a location phrase
• plus the thing that exists there

So على يمين الجسر ساحة literally looks like On the right of the bridge, a square, but the natural meaning is There is a square on the right of the bridge. The second half, وعلى يسار الجسر مقهى, works the same way.

This is a very common Arabic word order when you want to state where something is. Arabic often puts the place first, then the thing located there.

So:

• على يمين الجسر ساحة = a neutral there is type of statement
• ساحة على يمين الجسر is possible, but it sounds more like you are talking specifically about the square and then saying where it is

In other words, starting with the location is a very natural way to express existence or placement.

Here, يمين and يسار are nouns, not adjectives. They mean:

• يمين = right side
• يسار = left side

So يمين الجسر literally means the right side of the bridge, and يسار الجسر means the left side of the bridge.

That is why the phrase is built like side of the bridge, not like an English adjective phrase.

Because على يمين and على يسار are standard Arabic expressions for relative location.

So Arabic says:

• على يمين الجسر = on the right of the bridge / to the right of the bridge
• على يسار الجسر = on the left of the bridge / to the left of the bridge

A learner might expect another preposition, but this is just the normal idiomatic pattern. You will see it with many nouns:

• على يمين البيت = on the right of the house
• على يسار الباب = on the left of the door

الجسر is genitive because it is the second noun in a construct phrase:

• يمين الجسر
• يسار الجسر

This is an iḍāfa structure, often translated as the right of the bridge or the left of the bridge.

If the sentence were fully vowelled, you would read:

• على يمينِ الجسرِ
• على يسارِ الجسرِ

Also, يمين and يسار themselves are read with kasra here because they come after the preposition على.

Because they are indefinite: a square and a café, not the square and the café.

This matters because the whole sentence is introducing things in locations. Arabic very often uses an indefinite noun in this pattern to give a there is / there are meaning.

So:

• ساحة = a square
• مقهى = a café

If you used الساحة or المقهى, the sentence would sound more like you were referring to a specific, already-known square or café.

They are the nouns being located, and in traditional grammar they are usually analyzed as the postponed subject, مبتدأ مؤخر.

The location phrase comes first:

• على يمين الجسر
• على يسار الجسر

That fronted phrase functions like the predicate element, often called خبر مقدم in this kind of analysis.

So the structure is basically:

• location first
• then the noun that exists there

That is one reason the sentence feels like there is ... in English.

Yes, Arabic could use a pronoun. For example:

• على يمين الجسر ساحة، وعلى يساره مقهى

Here يساره means its left side, with -ه referring back to الجسر.

But repeating الجسر is also very natural. It makes the two halves nicely parallel and very clear:

• على يمين الجسر ...
• وعلى يسار الجسر ...

So the repetition is not strange; it is actually a neat, balanced way to say it.

The و simply means and. It joins two complete parallel clauses:

• على يمين الجسر ساحة
• على يسار الجسر مقهى

So the whole sentence is really two short location sentences linked together. Arabic often uses و very freely to connect this kind of simple descriptive statement.

The word مقهى is normally pronounced maqhā when paused. The final ى is alif maqṣūra, which represents a final ā sound, not a y sound.

So even though it looks unusual at first, it is just the normal spelling of the word. For a learner, the main thing to remember is:

• مقهى = café
• final ى here sounds like a long ā