La farmàcia és a prop de l'estació.

Because farmàcia is a feminine singular noun, so it takes the feminine singular definite article la when you mean a specific pharmacy: the pharmacy.

In Catalan, using the article here is completely normal.

• La farmàcia = the pharmacy
• Una farmàcia = a pharmacy

Without an article, farmàcia would usually sound like a label, heading, or dictionary form rather than a normal sentence.

És means is. It is the 3rd person singular present of ser.

The accent matters:

• és = is
• es = a pronoun, as in reflexive verbs

So the accent helps distinguish two different words. In pronunciation, és is stressed.

This is a very common question for English speakers.

In Catalan, ser is often used for straightforward location, especially when talking about where something is in a general or identifying way. So La farmàcia és a prop de l'estació is perfectly natural.

You may also hear està a prop de l'estació in everyday speech, depending on the speaker or dialect. But in this sentence, és is completely normal and standard.

A useful learner rule is:

• és can be used for general location statements like this
• està often sounds more temporary, situational, or emphatic

Yes. A prop de is the normal expression meaning near or close to.

It works as a fixed phrase:

• a prop = nearby
• a prop de + noun = near / close to + noun

So:

• La farmàcia és a prop = The pharmacy is nearby.
• La farmàcia és a prop de l'estació = The pharmacy is near the station.

For learners, it is best to memorize a prop de as one chunk.

Because Catalan normally drops the vowel of the article la before a word beginning with a vowel. This is called elision.

So:

• la + estació → l'estació

The noun is still feminine. The apostrophe does not change the gender; it only shows that the vowel in the article has been omitted.

You will see the same thing in many other words:

• l'escola
• l'entrada
• l'hora

Because a prop de requires the preposition de, and then the article follows it.

Here the noun is l'estació, so you get:

• de + l'estació = de l'estació

You do not combine de with l' into a single form.

Compare:

• de + el mercat → del mercat
• de + l'estació → de l'estació

So del is used with el, but not with l'.

Yes, estació is feminine.

A very helpful pattern is that many Catalan nouns ending in -ció are feminine:

• la informació
• la nació
• la situació
• l'estació

Even though you see l' instead of la, the noun is still feminine. The apostrophe just hides the vowel of the article.

The stress falls on mà: far-MÀ-ci-a.

The accent on à tells you where the stress goes. Without the accent, the word would not follow the expected stress pattern.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

• farmàcia ≈ far-MAH-see-uh

Also note:

• the c before i sounds like s
• so -cia sounds like -see-a

A rough pronunciation is:

la far-MAH-see-uh ez ah PROP de les-tah-see-O

A few key stress points:

• farmàcia → stress on mà
• és → stressed
• estació → stress on the final ó

A couple of sound notes:

• c before i is an s sound
• l'estació is pronounced smoothly together, almost like one unit

Exact pronunciation varies by dialect, but this will give you a good starting point.