En verano comemos sardinas y gambas cerca de la playa.

In Spanish, en verano is the most natural way to say in summer when you mean the season in a general, habitual sense.

• En verano comemos... = In summer, we eat...
• En el verano can sound more like during the summer or in a specific summer, depending on context.

So here, en verano fits because the sentence is talking about a usual pattern.

Comemos is the present indicative form of comer for nosotros:

• yo como
• tú comes
• él/ella come
• nosotros comemos
• vosotros coméis
• ellos/ellas comen

In this sentence, it expresses a habitual action: something we eat in summer.

Here it most naturally means we eat in the sense of we usually eat.

Spanish present tense often covers habitual actions very naturally:

• En verano comemos sardinas y gambas = In summer we eat sardines and prawns/shrimp

It would not normally mean we are eating right now unless the context clearly pointed that way. For an action happening right now, Spanish often uses estar + gerundio, for example estamos comiendo.

Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is.

• comemos already means we eat

So nosotros is not necessary. You would add nosotros only for emphasis, contrast, or clarity:

• Nosotros comemos sardinas, pero ellos no.

Because here they are being used as general food items, not as specific, already-identified things.

• Comemos sardinas y gambas = we eat sardines and prawns/shrimp in general
• Comemos las sardinas y las gambas would usually mean we eat the sardines and the prawns — specific ones

This is very common with verbs like comer, beber, and comprar when talking about things in a general way.

In Spain, gambas usually refers to prawns or shrimp, especially in cooking and restaurant language.

A learner should know that seafood vocabulary varies across the Spanish-speaking world:

• gambas is very common in Spain
• in other places you may hear words like camarones

So gambas is a good example of Spain-specific everyday vocabulary.

Because cerca normally needs de before a noun.

• cerca de la playa = near the beach
• cerca del hotel = near the hotel

So cerca de is a fixed structure.
The same happens with lejos de:

• lejos de casa = far from home

You can use cerca by itself only when the place is understood:

• La playa está cerca.

Spanish only has two common contractions:

• a + el = al
• de + el = del

But de + la does not contract.

So:

• de la playa = correct
• del playa = incorrect

Since playa is feminine, it uses la, and the phrase stays de la playa.

Because Spanish usually uses an article with nouns like this when referring to a place.

So la playa is the normal form for the beach.
After cerca de, you normally still keep the article:

• cerca de la playa
• cerca del mar
• cerca del centro

Dropping the article here would sound unnatural in standard Spanish.

Yes. Spanish word order is more flexible than English word order.

The original sentence is perfectly natural:

• En verano comemos sardinas y gambas cerca de la playa.

But you could also say:

• Cerca de la playa comemos sardinas y gambas en verano.
• En verano, cerca de la playa, comemos sardinas y gambas.

The meaning stays basically the same, although the emphasis shifts slightly depending on what you place first.

Because in Spanish, names of seasons are normally written with a lowercase letter:

• verano
• invierno
• primavera
• otoño

Unlike English, Spanish does not capitalize them unless they begin a sentence or are part of a title.

Yes, but the meaning changes.

• cerca de la playa = near the beach
• en la playa = on/at the beach

So the original sentence places the action near the beach, not necessarily on it. Both are correct Spanish, but they describe different locations.