La espátula está junto al fogón, al lado de la freidora.

Because this sentence gives the spatula’s location, and Spanish normally uses estar for location.

• estar = location, position, temporary state
• ser = identity, origin, basic characteristics

So:

• La espátula está junto al fogón = the spatula is next to the stove/burner
• Using es here would sound wrong in standard Spanish

A useful shortcut: if you are saying where something is, use estar.

Al is the contraction of a + el.

So:

• junto a el fogón → junto al fogón

This contraction is required in normal Spanish whenever a is followed by the masculine singular article el.

Compare:

• junto al fogón = next to the stove/burner
• al lado de la freidora = beside the fryer

Notice that there is no contraction with la:

• a la stays a la
• so you do not get a contraction before la freidora

They mean almost the same thing here: next to / beside.

• junto a = next to, close to
• al lado de = at the side of, beside, next to

In this sentence, they are basically interchangeable. The speaker is using two similar expressions for natural variety and emphasis.

You could say:

• La espátula está junto al fogón.
• La espátula está al lado del fogón.

Both are fine.

In this full sentence, using both phrases sounds natural because each one refers to a different nearby object:

• junto al fogón
• al lado de la freidora

Spanish uses definite articles much more often than English.

In English, you might sometimes say:

• Spatula is next to the stove

But in Spanish, you normally need the article:

• La espátula está junto al fogón

So the articles here are not unusual; they are the normal way to talk about specific objects in the scene.

Also, the articles must match the noun’s gender:

• la espátula = feminine
• el fogón = masculine
• la freidora = feminine

In this case, yes, espátula is feminine, so it takes la.

A lot of Spanish nouns ending in -a are feminine, but not all nouns follow simple ending rules. So it is best to learn each noun together with its article:

• la espátula
• el fogón
• la freidora

That said, -a = often feminine is a useful general pattern.

Fogón usually refers to a burner, hob, or stovetop cooking area, depending on context. In some contexts it can also refer more generally to a stove or cooking fire.

It is not always exactly the same as cocina:

• cocina can mean kitchen
• cocina can also mean stove/cooker, depending on context
• fogón is more specifically the heat source or burner area

So in this sentence, fogón suggests the spatula is near the cooking appliance or burner, not just somewhere in the kitchen.

Yes. Freidora is the standard word for fryer or deep fryer.

It comes from the verb freír, which means to fry.

Related words:

• freír = to fry
• frito/frita = fried
• freidora = fryer

So la freidora is a machine or appliance used for frying.

The accent marks show which syllable is stressed.

• espátula → stress on spá
• está → stress on the last syllable
• fogón → stress on the last syllable

They are important because stress in Spanish follows spelling rules, and accents show when a word does not follow the default pattern.

They can also distinguish meanings. For example:

• esta = this
• está = is

So the accent in está is not optional.

A simple Spain-Spanish approximation is:

la es-PA-tu-la es-TA JUN-to al fo-GON

A few helpful pronunciation points:

• j in junto sounds like a strong breathy sound, like the ch in Scottish loch
• á and ó show the stressed syllable
• g in fogón is a hard g
• junto al often flows together smoothly in normal speech

If you want to sound more natural, focus on the stress:

• esPÁtula
• esTÁ
• JUNto
• foGÓN

The comma is natural, but it is not absolutely essential in every context.

It helps separate the two location phrases:

• junto al fogón
• al lado de la freidora

With the comma, the sentence feels a bit clearer and more balanced. Without it, many speakers would still understand it perfectly:

• La espátula está junto al fogón al lado de la freidora.

But that version can feel slightly more crowded or ambiguous, because it is less clear how the two location phrases are grouped.

So the comma is a good choice here.

Yes. That is grammatically correct and means essentially the same thing.

Spanish word order is fairly flexible here because both phrases describe location:

• junto al fogón
• al lado de la freidora

Changing the order may slightly change what feels more prominent, but the basic meaning stays the same.

So both are natural:

• La espátula está junto al fogón, al lado de la freidora.
• La espátula está al lado de la freidora, junto al fogón.

Yes, it can be very natural, especially when you are helping someone identify exactly where an object is.

The sentence gives two reference points:

• it is next to the burner/stove
• it is beside the fryer

This makes the location more precise.

In everyday speech, Spanish often stacks location phrases like this when describing where something is. It does not sound strange if the goal is clarity.