هل هذا الفندق قريب من المطار؟

هل is a particle used to turn a statement into a yes/no question.

So:

• هذا الفندق قريب من المطار. = This hotel is near the airport.
• هل هذا الفندق قريب من المطار؟ = Is this hotel near the airport?

It does not mean do or does exactly; it simply marks the sentence as a question that can be answered with yes or no.

In Arabic, the verb to be is usually not expressed in the present tense.

So English says:

• This hotel is near the airport

But Arabic simply says:

• هذا الفندق قريب من المطار

Literally, that is closer to:

• this hotel near from the airport

This is completely normal in Arabic. If you wanted was or will be, then Arabic would use a verb, but in present-tense equational sentences like this one, there is usually no written or spoken word for is.

In Modern Standard Arabic, when a demonstrative like هذا means this before a noun, it normally comes before the noun:

• هذا الفندق = this hotel

So the order matches English here: this + noun.

That is useful to remember because Arabic adjectives usually come after the noun, but demonstratives like هذا come before it.

Because هذا means this, the noun after it is normally definite, so it takes الـ.

• فندق = a hotel / hotel
• الفندق = the hotel
• هذا الفندق = this hotel

In Arabic, this hotel is expressed with a definite noun, not an indefinite one. So هذا فندق would usually not be the normal way to say this hotel in standard usage.

قريب means near or close. Grammatically, it is an adjective, but here it functions as the predicate of the sentence.

So:

• هذا الفندق = this hotel
• قريب = near / close
• من المطار = to the airport / from the airport

A natural English translation is Is this hotel near the airport?

In other words, قريب is describing the hotel.

Because الفندق is a masculine singular noun, so the adjective/predicate agrees with it:

• فندق is masculine
• therefore: قريب

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

For example:

• هل هذه المدرسة قريبة من المطار؟ = Is this school near the airport?

So the form of قريب changes to match the gender of the noun it describes.

Because in this sentence قريب is the predicate, not part of a noun phrase like the near hotel.

Compare:

• الفندق القريب = the nearby hotel
  Here القريب is an adjective directly modifying الفندق, so it is definite too.

But in your sentence:

• هذا الفندق قريب = this hotel is near
  Here قريب is saying something about the hotel, so it stays indefinite.

This is a very common Arabic pattern:

• subject = definite
• predicate = usually indefinite

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

So:

• قريب من المطار = near the airport

This is just the normal Arabic pattern. English uses near the airport, but Arabic commonly uses close/near from the airport if translated literally.

So it is best to learn قريب من as a chunk:

• قريب من = near / close to

Because the sentence is talking about the airport, not just any airport.

• مطار = an airport / airport
• المطار = the airport

So:

• من المطار = from the airport / near the airport

In context, this often means the airport that is relevant in the situation, such as the main airport in the city.

If fully vocalized, the sentence would normally be:

هَلْ هٰذَا الْفُنْدُقُ قَرِيبٌ مِنَ الْمَطَارِ؟

The important endings are:

• الفندقُ with ـُ because it is the subject phrase
• قريبٌ with ـٌ because it is the predicate
• المطارِ with ـِ because it comes after the preposition من

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

هل هذا الفندق قريب من المطار؟

A common pronunciation is:

hal hādhā al-funduqu qarībun mina al-maṭāri?

In less formal transliteration, you might also see:

hal hatha al-funduq qareeb min al-matar?

A few pronunciation notes:

• هل = hal
• هذا = hādhā
• الفندق = al-funduq
• قريب = qarīb
• المطار = al-maṭār

It is a nominal sentence, because it does not begin with a verb.

The basic statement is:

• هذا الفندق قريب من المطار.

That is a nominal sentence meaning This hotel is near the airport.

To make it a yes/no question, Arabic simply adds هل at the beginning:

• هل هذا الفندق قريب من المطار؟

So the sentence structure stays the same; هل just makes it a question.

Yes, sometimes Arabic can ask a yes/no question just by using question intonation, especially in speech:

• هذا الفندق قريب من المطار؟

But in standard written Arabic, هل is a very common and clear way to mark a yes/no question.

So for learners, هل is the safest and most standard choice.

A short answer could be:

• نعم، قريب. = Yes, it is near.
• نعم، هذا الفندق قريب من المطار. = Yes, this hotel is near the airport.
• لا، ليس قريبًا من المطار. = No, it is not near the airport.

This is useful because it shows that when Arabic needs is not, it often uses ليس.

So although present-tense is is usually omitted, negation often brings in ليس.