El mapa és al costat del passaport i de la maleta.

Al costat de means next to, beside, or at the side of.

It is fairly literal:

• al = a + el = at the
• costat = side
• de = of

So al costat de is basically at the side of.

Examples:

• al costat del passaport = next to the passport
• al costat de la maleta = next to the suitcase

It is a very common fixed expression in Catalan.

Because a + el contracts to al in Catalan.

So:

• a el costat → al costat

This is a normal contraction, just like:

• de + el → del

You should usually think of al as the standard form, not as an optional shortening.

This is because Catalan contracts de with some articles, but not with all of them.

Here are the main patterns:

• de + el → del
• de + els → dels
• de + la → de la
• de + les → de les

So:

• de el passaport → del passaport
• de la maleta stays de la maleta

That is why the sentence has:

• del passaport
• de la maleta

In standard Catalan, ser is very commonly used to give the simple location of a person or thing.

So:

• El mapa és al costat del passaport... is natural and standard.

An English speaker may expect estar because of Spanish, but Catalan does not work in exactly the same way. In Catalan, ser is often the normal choice for basic location.

You may sometimes hear està in some contexts or varieties, especially when emphasizing where something has been placed or its current position, but és is the safest and most standard option here.

Catalan uses definite articles very naturally with specific nouns.

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about particular objects:

• the map
• the passport
• the suitcase

So Catalan uses:

• el mapa
• el passaport
• la maleta

This is completely normal. In many situations, Catalan uses articles where English might also use them, and sometimes where English might omit them.

Yes.

The structure is:

• al costat del passaport i de la maleta

This means the map is next to:

1. the passport, and
2. the suitcase

So the phrase applies to both nouns. You can understand it as:

• next to the passport and next to the suitcase

Because the expression is al costat de, and both nouns belong to that structure.

So Catalan naturally says:

• al costat del passaport i de la maleta

Repeating de makes the structure clear and idiomatic.

It is especially helpful here because the first noun uses the contracted form del, while the second uses de la. Repeating the preposition avoids confusion.

Yes. Mapa is masculine: el mapa.

Even though many nouns ending in -a are feminine, there are exceptions. Mapa is one of them.

Other masculine nouns with -a include:

• el problema
• el sistema
• el clima

So you simply have to learn el mapa as a masculine noun.

The accent in és shows the stressed vowel and helps distinguish it from other words.

Here:

• és = is

This accent is important because es without the accent is a different word in Catalan, often a pronoun.

So és should be learned as the full verb form meaning is.

The given order is the most neutral one:

• El mapa és al costat del passaport i de la maleta.

That is a straightforward subject + verb + location pattern.

Catalan can change word order in some contexts, but this version is the most natural basic sentence for a learner to use. For example, a different structure might be possible for emphasis, but the original sentence is the clearest standard choice.

Yes. In most everyday situations, both are good translations.

• next to
• beside

Both fit al costat de very well.

If you want to stay very literal, you can think of it as at the side of, but in normal English next to is usually the best everyday translation.