الممرضة في العيادة قرب مكتب الاستقبال.

In Modern Standard Arabic, the present-tense verb to be is usually not written or spoken in simple sentences like this.

So:

• الممرضة = the nurse
• في العيادة قرب مكتب الاستقبال = in the clinic near the reception desk

Together, they naturally mean The nurse is in the clinic near the reception desk.

If you wanted the past tense, Arabic would usually add a verb, for example كانت for was.

الممرضة means the nurse and it is feminine.

The ending ة (called taa marbuuTa) often marks feminine nouns in Arabic. So:

• ممرضة = female nurse
• ممرض = male nurse

Because the sentence uses الممرضة, it specifically refers to a female nurse.

الـ is the Arabic definite article, equivalent to the.

In this sentence, it appears on:

• الممرضة = the nurse
• العيادة = the clinic
• الاستقبال = the reception

Arabic often repeats الـ on each definite noun, unlike English, where the may appear fewer times in translation.

This is because مكتب الاستقبال is an iḍāfa construction, often called a genitive construction or noun-noun phrase.

It works like this:

• مكتب = desk / office
• الاستقبال = the reception

Together:

• مكتب الاستقبال = the reception desk or the reception office/front desk, depending on context

In an iḍāfa, the first noun usually does not take الـ, even when the whole phrase is definite. The definiteness comes from the second noun being definite.

So مكتب الاستقبال is definite as a whole, even though مكتب does not have الـ.

Yes, literally it is something like desk/office of the reception.

That is a very common way Arabic builds noun phrases. English usually prefers a different structure, such as:

• reception desk
• front desk
• reception office

So the Arabic phrase is normal and natural, even though the word-for-word structure is different from English.

في means in.

So:

• في العيادة = in the clinic

It is a preposition, and the noun after it is grammatically in the genitive case in formal Arabic.

Here قرب means near.

So:

• قرب مكتب الاستقبال = near the reception desk

For learners, it is fine to think of قرب as working like a preposition. More traditionally, Arabic grammar often analyzes it as a noun/adverb of place used in an iḍāfa construction.

That is why it is followed directly by مكتب الاستقبال.

A very common alternative in Arabic is:

• بالقرب من مكتب الاستقبال = near the reception desk

Both express the same basic idea.

They give two layers of location:

• في العيادة = the broader location: in the clinic
• قرب مكتب الاستقبال = the more specific location: near the reception desk

So the sentence first places the nurse in the clinic, then narrows that down to a more exact spot.

A simple pause-form pronunciation is:

al-mumarriḍa fi l-ʿiyāda qurb maktab al-istiqbāl

A few notes:

• ض in ممرضة is a heavy/emphatic d sound.
• ع in العيادة is a consonant sound that does not exist in English.
• ق in قرب is a deeper q sound, not the English k.
• In connected formal reading, the ة in الممرضة can sound like t because of case endings.

In fully vowelled formal Arabic, the sentence would be:

الْمُمَرِّضَةُ فِي الْعِيَادَةِ قُرْبَ مَكْتَبِ الِاسْتِقْبَالِ

The endings are there because of grammar:

• الممرضةُ: nominative, because it is the subject/topic of the sentence
• العيادةِ: genitive, because it comes after في
• قربَ: accusative, because it functions as an adverbial expression of place
• مكتبِ: genitive, because it is in an iḍāfa after قرب
• الاستقبالِ: genitive, because it is the second noun in that iḍāfa chain

In normal everyday writing, these short-vowel endings are usually not written.

Sometimes, yes, but the original order is the most straightforward and neutral.

الممرضة في العيادة قرب مكتب الاستقبال naturally starts with the nurse and then gives her location.

Arabic does allow some flexibility for emphasis, but not every rearrangement sounds equally natural in every context. For a learner, this original version is a very good basic model to follow.