Desde el balcón, el paisaje es precioso.

Because desde is the normal word for from when you mean a starting point or point of view.

• desde el balcón = from the balcony
• de el balcón would not sound right here

De is a much broader word and can mean of, from, about, and more, depending on context. In this sentence, desde is the natural choice.

Because Spanish only has two standard contractions with el:

• a + el = al
• de + el = del

So:

• desde el stays desde el
• not desdel

The phrase Desde el balcón is placed at the beginning as an introductory phrase, and the comma marks that off. It helps show a small pause and highlights the viewpoint.

With a short opening phrase like this, the comma is often a style choice rather than something absolutely required, but in this sentence it is perfectly natural.

Because in Spanish, singular count nouns usually need an article or another determiner.

So you say:

• desde el balcón
• el paisaje
• mi balcón
• un paisaje

But not normally just:

• desde balcón
• paisaje es precioso

English often allows no article where Spanish needs one, so this is a very common difference for learners.

You cannot always tell gender from the ending alone. While many masculine nouns end in -o and many feminine nouns end in -a, nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine.

So you need to learn the noun with its article:

• el paisaje = masculine
• therefore el paisaje es precioso

Because adjectives agree with the noun they describe.

Here, precioso describes el paisaje, which is masculine singular, so the adjective must also be masculine singular:

• el paisaje es precioso

If the noun were feminine, you would use preciosa:

• la vista es preciosa

Spanish usually uses ser for qualities seen as characteristic or defining, and estar for states or conditions.

Here el paisaje es precioso presents beauty as a quality of the landscape, so es is the normal choice.

If you used está precioso, it would sound more like it looks gorgeous right now or it is looking especially nice at the moment. That is possible in some contexts, but es precioso is the more neutral version here.

Yes. That is grammatically correct.

The difference is mainly emphasis:

• Desde el balcón, el paisaje es precioso.
  Emphasizes the viewpoint first.
• El paisaje es precioso desde el balcón.
  Sounds a bit more neutral and starts with the main subject.

Both are natural.

Not in every context. In Spanish, precioso very often means:

• beautiful
• lovely
• gorgeous

So in this sentence, precioso is better understood as beautiful than as English precious.

In Spain, paisaje is pronounced roughly pie-SAH-heh.

A few useful points:

• pai sounds like English pie
• the stress is on SA
• the j is a strong breathy sound, not an English j

A rough IPA version is /paiˈsaxe/.

In most of Spain, precioso is pronounced roughly preh-THYO-so.

Important point:

• the c before i is pronounced like English th in think

So a rough IPA version is /pɾeˈθjoso/ in most of Spain.

In much of Latin America, that same c would sound like s instead.

No. In this sentence it does not suggest movement. It simply tells you the place from which the speaker sees the landscape.

So the idea is:

• from the balcony, the landscape is beautiful
• seen from the balcony, the landscape is beautiful

Because without the accent, Spanish stress rules would make it sound like BAL-con.

Words ending in n, s, or a vowel are normally stressed on the second-to-last syllable. But balcón is stressed on the last syllable, so it needs the written accent:

• balcón = bal-CON

The accent mark shows the correct stress.