English Translation
We live close to the park.
I was wondering if this should be something like “Nous habitons près du parc”
I asked ChatGPT “Is Nous habitons proche du parc correct?” and it said:
The sentence Nous habitons proche du parc is understandable, but it is not grammatically correct in formal French.
Here’s why:
In French, the preposition “proche” (meaning “close” or “near”) is generally used with “de” but needs to be supported by the proper construction. The better phrasing would be:
Nous habitons près du parc.
(We live near the park.)
Alternatively, you could also say:
Nous habitons à proximité du parc. (We live in proximity to the park.)
Nous habitons non loin du parc. (We live not far from the park.)
Using proche directly without proper phrasing is more common in informal or spoken French, but it’s best to use the grammatically correct versions in writing or formal contexts.