This blog is aimed mainly at advanced students of English as a foreign / second language, although it will hopefully also be of some interest to teachers. I intend it to be a mishmash of lessons, exercises and the occasional opinionated rant about the English language.
Students sometimes get confused when to use near or nearby , near (to) or close to , and nearest or next . Master the differences with these three exercises.
Both near and nearby can be used as adjectives and adverbs to mean close in position, a short distance from somebody or something, not far away.
If we use a modifier such as quite, very etc with an adverb or after the verb be we usually use near .
We usually only use near as an adjective to refer closeness of time but not to closeness of position, except in superlatives and when we are comparing near with far .
| Exercise 1 | Choose the correct word to fill the gap Click or tap on the appropriate word |
| 1. | The people sitting were making a lot of noise. |
| near - nearby | |
| 2. | That sounded rather ! |
| near - nearby | |
| 3. | They live somewhere the next roundabout. |
| near - nearby | |
| 4. | I noticed someone standing staring at me. |
| near - nearby | |
| 5. | There are plenty of shops where we live. |
| near - nearby | |
| 6. | Don't worry! The car's parked quite ! |
| near - nearby | |
| 7. | We could see cows grazing in a field. |
| near - nearby | |
| 8. | There are several shops . |
| near - nearby | |
| 9. | She warned the children not to go the canal. |
| near - nearby | |
| 10. | I wonder if there's a pub . I could murder a beer. |
| near - nearby | |
| 11. | Are you going anywhere the city centre? |
| near - nearby | |
| 12. | A bird was singing somewhere . |
| near - nearby | |
| 13. | We heard voices as we drew the village. |
| near - nearby | |
| 14. | From a building we could hear the sound of a fire alarm. |
| near - nearby | |
| 15. | We're all meeting at that pub the station. |
| near - nearby |
We can use nearby after be , but often prefer other constructions, such as there is/are or, in a more formal style, putting nearby at the beginning (fronting).
| Exercise 2 | Use your instinct to choose the correct word to fill the gap Click or tap on the appropriate word |
| 1. | I'll be seeing him in the the future. |
| near - close | |
| 2. | She had a encounter with a ghost. |
| near - close | |
| 3. | They're friends of my father's. |
| near - close | |
| 4. | He's a neighbour of ours |
| near - close | |
| 5. | Phew! That was a miss. |
| near - close | |
| 6. | They're a family. |
| near - close | |
| 7. | The match was a contest |
| near - close | |
| 8. | It was a call. |
| near - close |
By and next to are closer than near . If they live near the park, it's probably within walking distance, but they can't necessarily see it. If they live by the park, their house is probably next to it.
(The) nearest means the closest in space, time or relationship, whereas (the) next means 'the one after this/that one' in a series of events, places or people. There are a couple of fixed expressions where next is also used for place.
| Exercise 3 | Use your instinct to choose the correct word to fill the gap Click or tap on the appropriate word |
| 1. | When is your appointment? |
| nearest - next | |
| 2. | Inverness, the big town to the village, is twenty miles away. |
| nearest - next | |
| 3. | When we get to the services area we better stop for petrol. |
| nearest - next | |
| 4. | Turn left at the set of traffic lights after this one. |
| nearest - next | |
| 5. | The bus stop to the house is about a mile away. |
| nearest - next | |
| 6. | We're getting off at the stop. |
| nearest - next | |
| 7. | Her rival was six points behind her. |
| nearest - next | |
| 8. | They live door to us. |
| nearest - next | |
| 9. | Come over here and sit to me. |
| nearest - next | |
| 10. | Do you know where the supermarket is? |
| nearest - next | |
| 11. | If you can't find any Roquefort, get the best thing. |
| nearest - next | |
| 12. | It was the thing to Roquefort I could find. |
| nearest - next |
In British English, the preposition near can be used with or without to (although to seems uncommon in American English). When talking about about physical closeness we usually leave it off:
Thanks for your help on WR F with those “mushrooms”. You helped me a lot. Between us, the mushrooms were worse than poisonous – there were fake. The original text is about something different; I just couldn’t untangle those tenses. I am lucky that I’ve discovered your blog; I will use it as an ally in my uphill battle with your mother tongue.
Glad I could help. I just wish I was doing as well learning your mother tongue. Reply DeleteGod luck.
BTW, this post and the word “next”. This short word is felt (or perceived) differently by Poles. We are usually taught that its meaning is “następny” (second in the row) rather than “najbliższy” (the nearest one). Effect? Thousands of gallons of wasted fuel. Every Pole, after seeing the road sign: “Take next exit”, passes the nearest one and takes the second exit, which he perceives as “next”. Believe me, this is not a Polish joke. I learned what the word “next” means after my thousandth U turn.
Reply Delete
Hi, you might also be interested in this post about different, other, another, next, which I find can also be confusing for Polish learners. And then of course there are things like 'druga strona', which for us is 'the other side'.
I'd never realised that about 'następny', always assuning it was simply 'next'. Reply Delete
Wow, thanks for the great explanation. It helps me a lot understand the differences. I only have one question. Why do you use "at" in "Google Books"? Shouldn't it instead be "in Google Books"?
Here is an example at Google Books.
Here is an example in Google. Books.
Here is an example on Google Books. Reply Delete
You wrote "Both near and nearby can be used as adjectives and adverbs to mean close in position, a short distance from somebody or something, not far away."
Near cannot be an adjective.
Near is a preposition (My house is near the supermarket)
and also can be an adverb (Summer is near.)
Nearby can be an adjective (There is a restaurant nearby)
and also an adverb (My house is nearby). Reply Delete
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Language in context
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| English to |
Mouse over annotated text in the blog for definitions, mainly based on Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Click and Drop - Wherever you see this symbol ? , place the cursor over it for instructions, using your mouse.
Answers - At the bottom of the post you will find a row of answer buttons. Click on the appropriate button and return to the exercise.
Print friendly - Each post is designed to be printable. Exercises usually appear on separate pages, or grouped together on a page. You can make a teacher copy with answers by clicking on 'Show All', then printing. Make sure you 'Clear All' before printing student copies. I strongly recommend doing a Print Preview first. You might want to change your margins and you certainly won't want to print every page.
Update - On newer posts, many of the exercises are individually printable. Just click on the print button, and they will appear in a new, easily printable page.
