Nära

Nära is a common Swedish word meaning near or close. It functions as a preposition, an adjective, and an adverb, and it is widely used across dialects and styles.

As a preposition, nära marks proximity with a noun in phrases such as nära huset (near the house) or bor nära stan (live near the town). It denotes physical or spatial closeness and can also express relational closeness in a figurative sense.

As an adjective, nära describes something that is physically close or emotionally intimate. Examples include en nära vän (a close friend) and ett nära förhållande (a close relationship). In these uses, it typically appears before the noun as a modifying word.

As an adverb, nära can indicate proximity in relation to the action or situation, often in constructions like står nära or står nära varandra (stand close to each other). It conveys immediacy or physical proximity rather than degree.

In English, när a translations include near and close. In some contexts it can convey near-ness in a spatial sense or in a personal sense of intimacy. For expressing "almost," Swedish normally uses nästan rather than nära; nära is not the standard choice for that meaning.

Related terms include närhet, which denotes nearness or closeness as a noun, and the broader word family around proximity and closeness in Swedish. As a versatile word, nära appears in everyday language to describe both literal distance and interpersonal closeness.