Paul attend sur le côté.

Because Paul is third person singular (he), so the verb attendre takes the form attend.

Present tense of attendre:

• j’attends = I wait / I am waiting
• tu attends = you wait
• il / elle / on attend = he / she / one waits

So Paul attend means Paul waits or Paul is waiting.

Sur le côté is a fixed expression meaning to the side, on the side, or off to one side, depending on context.

In this sentence, it tells you where Paul is waiting.
So it suggests that Paul is not in the middle of the action, but standing or staying at the side.

In French, articles such as le, la, and les are used much more often than in English.

So where English might say:

• on the side

French naturally says:

• sur le côté

Using côté without an article would usually sound incomplete here.

Not exactly.

• sur le côté = on the side / to the side
• à côté = next to / beside

So:

• Paul attend sur le côté = Paul is waiting off to the side.
• Paul attend à côté would usually need more information, such as à côté de Marie = Paul is waiting next to Marie.

That is the key difference: à côté often means beside something or someone.

Because French often uses the simple present where English can use either the simple present or the present continuous.

So:

• Paul attend can mean Paul waits
• and also Paul is waiting

French does not need a separate is + -ing form in most ordinary cases.

Usually yes, but the structure can be different from English.

In French, attendre can take a direct object:

• J’attends Paul. = I’m waiting for Paul.

Notice that English uses for, but French does not:

• not j’attends pour Paul
• correct: j’attends Paul

In your sentence, though, attend is used without a direct object, and sur le côté simply adds location.

A simple approximate pronunciation is:

Pol ah-ton syur luh koh-tay

A few useful notes:

• Paul sounds roughly like Pol
• attend has a nasal ending, so the final -nd is not fully pronounced like in English
• sur has a French u sound, which is hard for English speakers
• côté is pronounced roughly koh-tay

Also, in normal speech, le may sound very light.

Yes. French present tense often covers both meanings.

So depending on context, Paul attend sur le côté could be understood as:

• Paul waits on the side
• Paul is waiting on the side

English chooses between those more explicitly, but French often leaves it to context.

No, not naturally in this context.

De côté usually means something more like:

• sideways
• aside
• from the side
• or sometimes set aside

For location, if you want to say Paul is waiting off to the side, sur le côté is the more natural choice.

Yes. It is a complete and grammatically correct sentence.

It has:

• a subject: Paul
• a verb: attend
• a prepositional phrase showing location: sur le côté

So even though it is short, it is a full sentence.