Het metrostation ligt vlak bij het museumplein.

Because Dutch very often forms compound nouns by joining words together.

• metro
  • station → metrostation
• museum
  • plein → museumplein

This is much more common in Dutch than in English. Where English often writes metro station or museum square, Dutch usually combines them into a single word.

A helpful rule: in Dutch compounds, the last part is the main noun. So metrostation is a kind of station, and museumplein is a kind of plein.

Because station is a het-word, and compound nouns usually keep the article of their final element.

So:

• het station
• therefore het metrostation

This is a useful pattern in Dutch: the last part of the compound usually determines the gender and article.

Dutch often uses liggen for the location of places, buildings, and things that are situated somewhere.

So:

• Het metrostation ligt vlak bij het museumplein.

sounds very natural in Dutch.

For locations, Dutch often prefers:

• liggen = to be located / to lie
• staan = to stand
• zitten = to be situated, to be in/on/at, depending on context

Using zijn is sometimes possible, but liggen is the normal, idiomatic choice for a place like a station.

In natural English, this is often translated simply as is:

• The metro station is very close to the museum square.

But the Dutch verb is specifically liggen.

Vlak bij means very near, close to, or right near.

Compare:

• bij = near / by / at
• vlak bij = very near / quite close to

So vlak adds emphasis. It tells you the metro station is not just near the square, but really close to it.

A rough comparison:

• bij het museumplein = near the museum square
• vlak bij het museumplein = very close to the museum square

For the same reason as with metrostation: museumplein is a compound noun, and the article usually comes from the last word.

The last word here is plein:

• het plein
• therefore het museumplein

So even though museum is part of the word, the article is determined by plein.

The word order is very straightforward:

• Het metrostation = subject
• ligt = verb
• vlak bij het museumplein = place expression

So the pattern is:

Subject + verb + location

This is one of the most common Dutch sentence patterns in a main clause.

As written here, museumplein is lowercase, which suggests it is being used as a common noun meaning something like museum square.

If you mean the specific famous square in Amsterdam, the official name is het Museumplein, with a capital M.

So both can make sense, depending on context:

• het museumplein = the museum square, in a general sense
• het Museumplein = the proper name of the square in Amsterdam

Yes. Dicht bij is also very common and means close to.

So these are both natural:

• Het metrostation ligt vlak bij het museumplein.
• Het metrostation ligt dicht bij het museumplein.

The difference is small:

• dicht bij = close to
• vlak bij = very close to / right near

In many everyday situations, they are almost interchangeable.

You might be understood, but ligt is more natural in standard Dutch when talking about where a place is located.

So:

• Het metrostation ligt vlak bij het museumplein. = the most idiomatic choice
• Het metrostation is vlak bij het museumplein. = understandable, but less natural

Dutch often uses specific location verbs where English would simply use to be. That is why ligt is the better choice here.