Nearandnear to

The prepositionnear(to) means ‘not far away in distance’.Nearandnear tomean the same, butnearis more common:

She comes from a small place on the coastnearBarcelona.

My mother loves to sitnearthe fire at night.

She reached out her hand and drew himnear toher.

We can usenear (to)to talk about time:

My boss isnearretirement.(He will retire soon.)

Call me backnearthe end of September.

We can usenear(to) to talk about being almost in a particular state or condition:

It was full of soldiers and of military police, and I wasneardespair.

In formal contexts, we can usenearas an adjective to refer to time with the phrasein the near futuremeaning ‘soon’. It is usually in end position:

Bank interest rates are expected to risein the near future.