Lối này ở gần nhà.

Lối usually means way, path, route, passage, or sometimes entrance/access way, depending on context.

In Lối này ở gần nhà, it refers to some kind of way/path/route. It is not the most general word for road; for example:

• đường = road, street, route
• lối = way, path, passage, access way

So lối này feels like this way/path rather than this road.

In Vietnamese, demonstratives like này often come after the noun, not before it as in English.

So:

• lối này = this way/path
• nhà này = this house
• người này = this person

This is a very common pattern in Vietnamese. English says this way; Vietnamese says way this.

Here, ở means something like to be located at / to be in / to be situated.

So in this sentence, ở is acting like the main verb of location:

• Lối này ở gần nhà.
• literally: This path is located near the house/home.

This is different from English, where we usually just use is. In Vietnamese, ở often appears when talking about location.

Compare:

• Nhà tôi ở Hà Nội. = My house/home is in Hanoi.
• Cô ấy ở đây. = She is here.
• Lối này ở gần nhà. = This path is near the house/home.

Vietnamese does not use one single verb exactly like English to be in all situations.

Depending on the sentence, Vietnamese may use:

• là for identity/equation
  
  • Anh ấy là bác sĩ. = He is a doctor.
• ở for location
  
  • Anh ấy ở nhà. = He is at home.
• sometimes no verb at all with adjectives
  
  • Nhà lớn. = The house is big.

In Lối này ở gần nhà, the idea is about location, so ở is natural.

Gần means near / close to, and nhà means house or home, depending on context.

So gần nhà means:

• near the house
• near home
• sometimes near my/our house, if the context makes that clear

Vietnamese often leaves out possessive words like my when they are understood from context.

For example, in conversation, gần nhà may naturally be understood as near my house/home even though my is not explicitly stated.

Because Vietnamese grammar works differently here.

Gần can directly take the noun phrase after it:

• gần nhà = near home / near the house
• gần trường = near the school
• gần đây = near here / recently, depending on context

You do not need an extra word equivalent to English to.

So English close to the house becomes simply gần nhà in Vietnamese.

It can mean either, depending on context.

• house = the physical building
• home = the place where someone lives, with a more personal sense

Vietnamese nhà often covers both ideas. In everyday speech, it very often means home or someone’s house/home.

So gần nhà could mean:

• physically near the house
• near home
• near someone’s place

Context tells you which is most natural.

Yes, it is grammatical and understandable, but how natural it sounds depends on the situation.

It sounds most natural if you are talking about:

• a path
• a passage
• a way through somewhere
• an access route

If you meant a road/street, Vietnamese speakers might more often use đường:

• Đường này ở gần nhà. = This road is near the house/home.

So lối is fine, but it has a more specific feeling than đường.

A careful pronunciation would be roughly:

• lối này ở gần nhà

A very rough English-style guide:

• lối ≈ loý
• này ≈ nye / naì
• ở ≈ uh̉ / ở
• gần ≈ guh̀n
• nhà ≈ nyà

The tones matter a lot:

• lối has the sắc tone
• này has the huyền tone
• ở has the hỏi tone
• gần has the huyền tone
• nhà has the huyền tone

If you want to sound natural, it is better to learn the tones from audio rather than rely only on English-style spellings.

Sometimes you may hear very short Vietnamese sentences where words are omitted, but in this sentence ở is the normal and clearer form.

So:

• Lối này ở gần nhà. = the standard, clear version

Without ở, the sentence may sound incomplete or less natural to learners, even if context makes it understandable.

For location like this, it is safest to keep ở.

The sentence is about lối này.

So the structure is basically:

• Lối này = the thing being talked about
• ở gần nhà = what is being said about it

You can think of it as:

• As for this path/way, it is near the house/home.

This topic-comment feeling is very common in Vietnamese and helps explain why the sentence feels straightforward even though it is built differently from English.