How to use naar and aan

[Iouri]

The translation for both naar and ann is - to.
Can you tell me when to use which and what is the difference.
From my understanding naar is used for direction - ga naar school
and aan is used like geef het aan mij
What other cases for usage of these words?

Thank you

[ngonyama]

"Aan" is often the equivalent of a дательный падеж. Ik geef het aan hem. It can also mean something touching or adhesive:
Het zit aan de wand vastgeplakt. - it glued to the wall

"Aan" is pretty general and has a lot of usages. It often translates as "on" in English
Aan de kant van de weg - on the side of the road.

Het herinnert me aan mijn reis - it reminds me of my trip

It also occurs as a prepositional adverb and forms compound verbs:

Het licht aandoen - switching on the light

"Naar" is often more a direction: naar huis -домой. It kan be the equivalent of к, but think of an arrow, a mathematical vector. In English to in the sense of towards or at.
Dat wijst naar het noorden - it points towards the north.
Hij kijkt naar het plaatje - he looks at the picture
"Naar" is not so general. It does not form compound verbs.

[Iouri]

Very nice explanation. Thank you.

btw do you know russian?

[Iouri]

Also I believe I read somewhere that "aan" is used as on something vertical
foto hangt aan de muur
vs
Een boek ligt op de tafel

Is it true?

[ngonyama]

Yes I (used to) know some Russian. It was my minor in college, but that is long ago.

Op is on in the sense of "on top of".

[Iouri]

How many other languages do you know? I envy you

[KrisPa]

"Naar" or "aan", this was indeed one of the first issues I had with Dutch when I started learning it. And here are my thoughts on the subject (which seem to corroborate what Ngonyama said, but are put in a slightly different way):

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"Naar" is a sort of vector (arrow) which indicates physical (material or immaterial)movement (thus the idea of direction must be involved), either actual or intended. Please notice that in examples (b) and (c) the movement of the sound or light waves that convey the visual (TV) or sound (muziek) information we are searching for is immaterial, yet physical.

(a) naar huis gaan; (b) naar muziek luisteren; (c) naar TV kijken.
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"Aan" is just a pointer which indicates the object (so it points to an object) which we have in mind; the idea of a movement or direction (vector) is not really involved here. It can also be said that the notion of movement all there where it may be "sensed" (denken an jij) is mental rather than physical.

(a) Aan de kant van de weg; (b) Het herinnert me aan mijn reis [something points me to where I am in my thoughts]; (c) Dat doet me denken aan jij.
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But, of course, the native speakers of Dutch may want to find examples which defy these ideas of mine refering to "naar" and "aan". And, of course, I will be more than happy to examine such examples.

[Bert]

Dat doet me denken aan jou. Otherwise I think you are right.