X is near or next to Y. Is my understanding of this correct?


So I know that a few words could be used interchangably. But I wasn't sure if
I got the nuance(s) correct. So I have this sentence: 車はどこにありますか。 車庫のそばです。 And
as far as I can see, I can change そば in this sentence and the meaning stays
the same.

  * 車はどこにありますか。 車庫のそばです。 
  * 車はどこにありますか。 車庫のよこです。
  * 車はどこにありますか。 車庫のところです。
  * 車はどこにありますか。 車庫のちかくです。
  * 車はどこにありますか。 車庫のとなりです。

Now the sentence with となり, I'm not sure of because a car is certainly nothing
like a garage. However, car and a garage are car-related. Any fine details I
overlooked?




Your sentences (mostly) have the same _general_ meaning of the car being near
the garage, but the choice of word does have nuances that will determine the
flavor of that nearness.

  * そば says specifically that it is next to, or beside, the garage.
  * よこ emphasizes that it is _horizontally_ next to the garage, as its counterpart is たて. Basically using this can be alternately phrased as "not たて."
  * ところ is much more vague. You're saying the car is in the same place as the garage.
  * ちかく is like a half way point between そば and ところ in terms of distance with regard to an unspecified location. You're saying it's near the garage somewhere.
  * となり has a generally equivalent meaning of "neighboring" even here, and has an image similar to よこ and そば. As you know it's usually used with houses or the like.

So as you can see it's not exactly true that that they all have the same
meaning. They all convey the same general idea, but nuances still have an
effect. The more general a word is, like そば or ちかく, the less you will invoke
potentially unexpected nuances.




Your sentences (mostly) have the same _general_ meaning of the car being near
the garage, but the choice of word does have nuances that will determine the
flavor of that nearness.

  * そば says specifically that it is next to, or beside, the garage.
  * よこ emphasizes that it is _horizontally_ next to the garage, as its counterpart is たて. Basically using this can be alternately phrased as "not たて."
  * ところ is much more vague. You're saying the car is in the same place as the garage.
  * ちかく is like a half way point between そば and ところ in terms of distance with regard to an unspecified location. You're saying it's near the garage somewhere.
  * となり has a generally equivalent meaning of "neighboring" even here, and has an image similar to よこ and そば. As you know it's usually used with houses or the like.

So as you can see it's not exactly true that that they all have the same
meaning. They all convey the same general idea, but nuances still have an
effect. The more general a word is, like そば or ちかく, the less you will invoke
potentially unexpected nuances.

