"The table is near the tree."

Translation: Стол — возле дерева.

[tylerblankenship]

So, возле is a preposition that requires the genitive after it?

[Madame-patate]

да ^^

[davideamoretti]

I need a little explanation of this preposition, to mean "near" i knew "недалеко от, около" but nobody taught me about this one

[ramin1981]

Synonyms are "рядом, близко, недалеко, около, близ, подле, при, у" for word "возле".
In english you can use beside, by, near.

рядом дома = near the house
возле дома = near the house

[LawrenceEric]

Is the hyphen really used in Russian?

Correct me if I'm wrong, please, but it seems like it's used in the same way a colon (' : ') would be used in other languages such as French and English...

[shavyle]

Why is у стол... Not acceptable

[Kundoo]

"У" requires the genitive, so it should be "у стола".

[AndroidKanada]

Although it's the table that's near the tree, "стол - у дерева" is not accepted. Does «у» connote actually touching, or very close?

[DJHarris8]

So a word doesn't get the genitive case unless it follows the necessary preposition?

[7853238909txtme]

I thought риодом was near

[Kundoo]

You've probably meant "рядом с". There's no such word as "риодом" in Russian.
And yes, it does mean "near". So does "возле".
Just like English has several words denoting close proximity (near, close to, next to, by, beside, etc.), so does Russian.

The difference is "возле" requires the genitive case and "рядом с" requires the instrumental case. So it's either "возле дерева" or "рядом с деревом".