Adverb vs. Adjective

Use 'cerca' by itself to mean 'nearby'. Use 'cerca de' when you're saying something is near *another specific thing*. Example: 'El café está cerca' (The café is nearby) vs. 'El café está cerca de la oficina' (The café is near the office).

Cerca vs. Cerca de

'Cerca' is almost always about physical distance. To talk about being emotionally close to someone, you'd usually use words like 'unido' (close-knit) or say 'somos muy amigos' (we're very good friends).

Location, Not Emotion

Extremely common. One of the first words you'll learn to describe where things are.

A 'cerca' is a fence or enclosing wall. A 'muro' is a bigger, solid wall, often of stone (like the Great Wall of China, 'La Gran Muralla'). A 'pared' is the interior wall of a room in a building.

Cerca vs. Muro vs. Pared

Fairly common, especially in contexts related to homes, gardens, and property.

Notice how the 'c' changes to 'qu' in some forms (like 'yo cerqué' or 'que él cerque'). This happens to keep the hard 'k' sound. It's a regular pattern for all verbs ending in '-car'.

Spelling Change Alert!

Less common in everyday conversation but used in news, historical texts, or formal contexts.

Learn the complete meaning of the Spanish word 'cerca'. Understand its uses as an adverb ('near', 'close') and a noun ('fence'), with examples, usage tips, and verb conjugations for 'cercar'.

cercar

Complete Conjugation Tables

🔄 Conjugations

indicative

present

future

imperfect

conditional

preterite

imperative

negative

affirmative

subjunctive

present

imperfect

Practice Conjugations