9800
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?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-19T04:21:52.853
9798
2015-03-25T13:32:08.457
769
question
word-choice
X is near or next to Y. Is my understanding of this correct?
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.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-12-19T05:46:32.293
9800
2012-12-19T14:50:03.577
2012-12-19T14:50:03.577
1797
1797
9798
answer
My previous link about `tonari` was lost. So I'm going to post another link I
found here as an answer for completeness.

[Source: Japanese Words and Their
Uses](https://books.google.com/books?id=MVVzBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200&dq=tonari%20japanese&source=bl&ots=Z1O8hwNE_4&sig=8pUz7FhKWXpnoxleuEsU0mHcaFc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=N7USVcaaMY2zyAS7qYLwBA&ved=0CE4Q6AEwCTgK#v=onepage&q=tonari%20japanese&f=false)

`Tonari` is used especially when two objects of more or less the same category
are in question. When two objects belong to two entirely different categories,
`tonari` is not appropriate. Examples (1) and (2) are correct, but (3) and (4)
sound very strange.

  1. Sakanaya wa nikuya no `tonari` desu. 
  2. Uchi no `tonari` ni Amerikajin no kazoku ga sundeiru. 
  3. Boku no uchi wa ooki na sakura no ki no `tonari` desu. 
  4. Kadan no `tonari` ni inu ga neteiru.

In such cases, (3) and (4) should be replaced by `[sugu] yoko` ("by, at the
side of").

In English, a person living next to you is a neighbor, but a person living
several doors away is also a neighbor. In Japanese, however, only the former
would be a `tonari` no hito, whereas the latter would be a `kinjo` no hito
("person in the `neighborhood`").
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-03-25T13:32:08.457
23448
2015-03-25T13:32:08.457
769
9798
answer