nearer vs. closer

[chiroho]

perdiccas asked when do you use "nearer" versus "closer"?

Comments

[majorsamfan]

Excellent run down. Thanks.

[chiroho]

You're very welcome.

[perdiccas]

Thank you! :)

[chiroho]

You're most welcome.

[cyyt]

Hmm... Never really thought about it. It was more of the case whereby whichever word sounded 'correct'. Interesting though.(:

[chiroho]

I'd never really thought about it either until I started writing this response and talking about what I'd written, and actually realised that there were a lot more definitions involving "close" than "near".

Glad you found it interesting though. :)

[dark_weezing]

Superb explanation, yes.

[chiroho]

Thank you. Hopefully it can prove as helpful as I found it to be when writing it!

[campylobacter]

Very inspirational post!

Those words in tandem are perfect for a single sentence where you need to convey a distinction between their meanings without repetition:

Worf drew Riker nearer to him--rough but careful not to hurt--and tested the space between them by allowing the human to decide how much closer he wanted to come.

[chiroho]

Thank you. And your sentence does use both words correctly, and demonstrates the distinction in meanings. Now why couldn't I come up with that when writing my examples!