When you use “oproti” and “naproti” not with a meaning to be in the opposite side of sth, but to go to meet somebody , do you also prefer “oproti” to “naproti”?
Me personally I would use "
naproti" in that context
, e.g.: Idem mu naproti. Using
"oproti" in that same sentence sounds a little bit off to me (though other native speakers might disagree). Both are acceptable in spoken language. I just personally prefer to use
naproti.
My sentence from the book: “… a Peter išiel starému otcovi naproti”.
Yep. That's exactly how I would use it myself as well
And my second question is that the sentence has exactly the same meaning independently from the position of these prepositions (o/naproti)? Either thry are put before or after “starému otcovi”?
I don't think you can put
oproti/naproti before the noun phrase without the sentence sounding a bit unnatural then. I don't think this is just a matter of preference (unlike the above mentioned use of
oproti vs
naproti) either.
"a Peter išiel naproti starému otcovi” sounds off to me.
"Naproti" (in this particular example) can sound a bit like you're saying that Peter was (going) "against" his grandfather (which could mean that Peter was trying to do something against his grandfather's wishes). Without context, I wouldn't necessarily know what that sentence means (on its own). I'd personally stick to putting
oproti/naproti after the noun phrase (and
definitely put it
after if there is a pronoun there instead of a noun, e.g.
Idem ti/mu/jej naproti) when you're talking about setting off to go meet somebody.
