近く vs 近い

[untmdsprt]

Can someone explain the difference between 近い and 近く? Is one an adjective, noun, adverb, what? Can you give an example Japanese sentence along with a literal translation of each? Proper English doesn’t help because all the ones I’ve seen basically say the same thing.

Thanks!

[Jessi]

For 近い and 近く, try to think of 近い as an adjective meaning "close", "nearby", and 近く as an adverb (?) meaning "in the vicinity".

駅が近いです。 （えきがちかいです）
The station is nearby.

駅は、スーパーの近くです。 （えきは、スーパーのちかくです）
(lit)The station is in the vicinity of the supermarket = The station is near the supermarket.

For the second one you could also say: 駅は、スーパーの近くにあります and it means the same thing

[untmdsprt]

Thanks! That makes more sense. It's good to have a literal translation to get the best idea of what something means.

I was reading on WWWJDIC that 近く is a noun and an adjective, whereas 近い is only an adjective. That could also help in understanding.