近(jìn) - near, close; recently in Mandarin

近 is near, in space, in time and in relationships. It is the direct opposite of 远 (yuǎn, far), and the pair are best learnt together because they share every construction.

The construction that matters is 离. Distance between two points uses 离, not 从: 我家离学校很近 (my home is near the school). 从 is for a starting point of movement, so 从我家到学校 (from my home to the school) is a different sentence with a different job. Mixing them up is the single commonest mistake with this word.

As an adjective it takes 很 in a plain statement (很近), because a bare adjective in Mandarin implies comparison. In compounds it turns temporal: 最近 (recently, or the nearest), 近年 (in recent years), 附近 (nearby, the area around).