Difference between revisions of "Near"
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Latest revision as of 09:54, 2 December 2020
In the phrase "near to my house", "near" is an adjective. As an adjective it has the gradative (comparative and superlative) forms "nearer" and "nearest":
- "The library is nearer to my house than the supermarket, but the post office is the nearest building to my house."
The particle to may be omitted:
- "The library is near my house."
When used without to, traditional grammar analyses this as a preposition. However, the presence of gradative forms argues against this, as no English prepositions have gradative forms.
This is a grammatical rule that's probably unimportant for English language learners as this exception can be safely ignored as "near to" = "near".
The adverb nearly has evolved a different meaning to near, meaning "almost, but not quite".[1]
