المقهى الذي على يسار الجسر قريب من الفندق.

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Breakdown of المقهى الذي على يسار الجسر قريب من الفندق.

• قريب: near/close
• الذي: that/which
• على: on

Questions & Answers about المقهى الذي على يسار الجسر قريب من الفندق.

What does الذي mean here, and why is that form used?

الذي is the relative pronoun that / which / who.

In this sentence, it refers back to المقهى and introduces the description of that café:

• المقهى = the café
• الذي على يسار الجسر = that is on the left of the bridge

Arabic chooses the form of the relative pronoun based on the noun it refers to. Since المقهى is singular, masculine, and definite, the correct form is الذي.

For comparison:

• masculine singular: الذي
• feminine singular: التي
• masculine plural: الذين
• feminine plural: اللاتي / اللواتي

Why is قريب masculine, not قريبة?

Because قريب is describing المقهى, and المقهى is grammatically masculine singular.

So the adjective must match it:

• مقهى قريب = a near café / a café that is near
• not مقهى قريبة

Even though a café is not biologically male, Arabic nouns still have grammatical gender, and مقهى is treated as masculine.

Why is there no word for is in the sentence?

In present-tense Arabic, the verb to be is usually in simple statements like this.