La miniature est près du nom de fichier.

Because miniature is a feminine noun in French.

So:

• la miniature = the thumbnail / the miniature image
• not le miniature

This is something you usually just have to learn with the noun. In tech contexts, miniature commonly means a thumbnail image.

Est is the third-person singular form of the verb être (to be).

So:

• la miniature = the thumbnail
• est = is
• près du nom de fichier = near the file name

French often uses être in simple location statements, just like English does:

• Le livre est sur la table. = The book is on the table.
• La miniature est près du nom de fichier. = The thumbnail is near the file name.

Because de + le contracts to du in French.

The basic expression is:

• près de = near

But when de is followed by le, they combine:

• de + le = du

So:

• près de le nom de fichier → près du nom de fichier

This kind of contraction is very common in French:

• à + le = au
• de + le = du
• de + les = des
• à + les = aux

Yes. Près de is a prepositional expression meaning near or close to.

It works as a unit:

• près de la fenêtre = near the window
• près du nom de fichier = near the file name

A useful thing to remember is that près almost always needs de after it when it introduces a noun.

Because nom de fichier means file name in a general, compound-noun sense.

French often uses noun + de + noun where English uses one noun to modify another:

• nom de fichier = file name
• barre de recherche = search bar
• page d’accueil = home page

If you said le nom du fichier, that would usually mean the name of the file — referring to a specific file.

So there is a difference:

• nom de fichier = file name / filename (the concept or label type)
• nom du fichier = the name of the file (a specific file)

Actually, English does say the here: near the file name.

French matches that with:

• du nom de fichier = of the file name / near the file name

More literally, the structure is:

• près de + le nom de fichier
• which becomes près du nom de fichier

So the article belongs to nom:

• le nom de fichier = the file name

Often yes, especially in software, image, and interface contexts. Une miniature is a common French word for a thumbnail image.

Depending on context, French speakers might also use:

• vignette in some visual or publishing contexts
• but miniature is very common in computing

So in a user-interface sentence like this one, la miniature is natural.

Yes, sometimes — but the meaning shifts slightly.

• près de = near / close to
• à côté de = next to / beside

So:

• La miniature est près du nom de fichier. = The thumbnail is near the file name.
• La miniature est à côté du nom de fichier. = The thumbnail is next to the file name.

If you mean immediate side-by-side placement, à côté de may be more precise. If you just mean general proximity, près de works well.

Because this is a very straightforward French sentence with the normal pattern:

• subject: La miniature
• verb: est
• location expression: près du nom de fichier

That is the same basic order English uses:

• The thumbnail
  • is
    • near the file name

Not every French sentence lines up this neatly with English, but simple location sentences often do.

A rough pronunciation guide for an English speaker would be:

lah mee-nee-ah-tyur eh preh dew noh(n) duh fee-shyay

A few notes:

• miniature in French is not pronounced like English miniature
• près sounds like preh
• du has the French u sound, which does not exist exactly in English; dew is only an approximation
• fichier sounds roughly like fee-shyay

If you want to sound more natural, pay special attention to:

• the French r
• the vowel in du
• the ending -ier in fichier

Usually, when followed by a noun, you need de:

• près de la porte
• près du nom de fichier

But près can appear in other structures, for example:

• Il habite près. = He lives nearby.

So in this sentence, because a noun follows, de is required.

Because fichier is a masculine noun in French:

• le fichier = the file

That matters when articles combine:

• de + le fichier = du fichier

In this sentence, though, the article is attached to nom, not directly to fichier:

• le nom de fichier

Still, it is useful to know:

• un fichier
• le fichier

Word-for-word, something like that is possible as a learning aid, but it is not natural English.

A more useful breakdown is:

• La miniature = the thumbnail
• est = is
• près de = near
• le nom de fichier = the file name

So the natural English translation is:

• The thumbnail is near the file name.

When learning French, it often helps to understand the structure literally, but you should still remember the natural English equivalent.