Learn English – Is the sentence “I’m strange to this neighbourhood” correct

word-choice

I don't know which to choose, "new" or "strange" to complete the following sentence.

I'm _____ to this neighbourhood.

A correct answer seems to be "new", but why is "strange" wrong?

Best Answer

I'm _____ to this neighbourhood.

Because the sentence has been constructed for you, you should be able to see that it describes your relationship to the neighbourhood, not the other way around.

The option "strange" is not correct because "strange" in the context of being somewhere new means "unusual" or "odd" because of your own unfamiliarity with it. Saying "I'm strange to this neighbourhood" would mean that it is you who is strange, not the neighbourhood. The word "neighbourhood" describes an area, and although it is characterised by having people live there and is sometimes used idiomatically to refer to a community of people, technically it does not mean the people itself (otherwise you would never hear terms such as "an abandoned neighbourhood"). That would be the "community". A community could find you strange, but I don't feel it is technically correct to say that a geographical area finds you strange.

You could say:

This neighbourhood is strange to me.

Because the sentence has been reversed it shows that the neighbourhood seems strange to you because you are unfamiliar with it.

You could also say:

I'm a stranger to this neighbourhood.

or

I'm unfamiliar with this neighbourhood.

The answer to your 'fill-in-the-blank' question though has to be:

I'm new to this neighbourhood.