Difference between “close” and “near”

Question

What is the difference between the adjectives close and near? Are they totally synonymous? Is there some nuance that I'm missing?

As a native speaker of Spanish, I can't see any difference, since both are translated to cercano.

Answer 1

They are mostly interchangeable, but there is some difference. See this Usage Note taken from the OALD:

The adjectives near and close are often the same in meaning, but in some phrases only one of them may be used:

The near future ◇ a near neighbour ◇ a near miss ◇ a close contest ◇ a close encounter ◇ a close call.

Close is more often used to describe a relationship between people: a close friend ◇ close family ◇ close links. You do not usually use near in this way.

Answer 2

They are pretty much synonyms, but you can't use them the exact same way everywhere. Depending on the sentence, there can be different connotations. For example

Anna and Bob are close to each other

and

Anna and Bob are near each other

are not the same. The former can imply that they are located close to each other, but it can also imply a close relationship, they are good friends (not quite lovers though, just good friends).

The latter only implies close distance in space.

In general, my feeling is that 'near' is more of a technical term, usually implying a short distance in physical space, whereas 'close' can, in addition to short physical distance, also refer to all kinds of distances, such as emotional relationship (see example above), temporal near-coincidence ("a close call" for two events that happened nearly at the same time), a difference in meaning ("the explanation is close enough to the truth"), etc.

Answer 3

Close and near have similar meanings. There are times where you can use close or near, but in some phrases you don't use close instead of near, or vice versa.

The conflict is unlikely to be resolved in the near future.
An all-electric future was near at hand.

She needs to keep a close eye on this project.
She came close to calling the President a liar.
Pay close attention to what your body is telling you about yourself.

Answer 4

Those two words are exact synonyms. However, I think that I use 'close' more often than 'near'.