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O hospital é longe do centro.

O hospital é longe do centro.
The hospital is far from the centre.
From Lesson 30:Prepositions of place (ao lado de, em frente de...)·Portuguese (Portugal)

Questions & Answers about O hospital é longe do centro.

Why do we use é (from the verb ser) for a location, instead of está?
You probably learned early on that estar is used for locations. However, in European Portuguese, we use ser (or the verb ficar) for permanent locations, like a hospital, a building, or a city. We only use estar for temporary locations, like where a person or a movable object happens to be right now.
Why does the sentence say do centro instead of just de centro?
Just like the location phrases in this lesson (like ao lado de), longe is followed by the preposition de (from). Because we want to say "from the centre", we need the word for "the" (o). In Portuguese, de and o always merge into the single word do.
Do we always have to put de (or do/da) after longe?
Only if you are mentioning what the place is far from! If you just want to say "The hospital is far" and stop there, you can simply say O hospital é longe. But if you specify the reference point (like the centre), you must link them with de.
If we were talking about a feminine place, like a escola (the school), would longe change to match it?
No, it stays exactly the same. Longe (far) is an adverb, which means it describes the verb (how far away it is), rather than describing the noun itself. It never changes its ending for masculine, feminine, singular, or plural words.

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