Jtdcftul

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?

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 it does not actually mean the people itself. That would be the "community". A community could find you strange, but I dont feel it is 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.

Two different meanings

"I'm new to this neighbourhood" means that you recently arrived there.

"I'm strange to this neighbourhood" means that you are strange, odd, peculiar, curious, or unusual in the opinions of people in the neighbourhood. At least it means that you are different than the usual person in the neighbourhood.

You could say I'm a stranger to this neighbourhood, which means people in the neighbourhood don't know you yet, or don't trust you yet, or they don't consider you one of their own.

It is not incorrect but it's pretty uncommon and a lot of native speakers would be somewhat confused by this usage. It's something you would typically only find in print written at a college or above reading level. The form of 'strange' is this:

Merriam-Webster

strange 1.b not native to or naturally belonging in a place : of external origin, kind, or character

'The Free Dictionary' includes a usage example:

strange 1.b Not of one's own or a particular locality, environment, or kind; not native: came across a flower that was strange to the region.

An example of this usage can be found in this transcript from a US congressional hearing:

While the various species might or might not be strange to the region, it was certainly exceedingly strange to find them appearing in very large populations during the first three months of the year, ...

At oxforddictionaries.com It is described as archaic. Probably it is but perhaps more so in British English than American English.

‘I am strange to the work’

The option 'new' in this sentence is a very common usage which is why it's selected. It's the better answer but 'strange' isn't really incorrect here.