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Adverbs for Place

Expressing Movement in a Particular Direction

Both adverbs and prepositional phrases express movement in a direction.  Prepositional phrases are more specific by relating an object to the direction of movement. 

Adverbs vs. Prepositional Phrases  (adverbial phrases)

PLACE  ADVERBS PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Movement toward a place  Movement toward an object — person, place or thing

He went inside. (inside modifies where he went) 

He went inside the house.(inside the house modifies where he went)

He walked back.(back modifies where he walked — toward the back)He walked backward. (toward the back but facing forward)

He walked in back of us.(in back of us modifies where he walked)

The guards wouldn't let us go through. (through modifies where we couldn't go) 

We walked through the area. (through the area modifies where we walked) 

Adverb and Prepositional Phrases for Place

We went _________ .  (adverb) We went _________ the ship.   (preposition)

aboard / onboard before in pastabout (around) behind inside throughabove (overhead) below near throughoutacross beneath next (adv) next to (prep) toafter beside / besides off underalong between on underneatharound beyond out (adv)  out of (prep) up aside by outside within

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back (adv) in back of (prep) down over without

List — Prepositions   for place

Place Adverbs  (which are not prepositions)

We went _________.  (adverb)abroad here aloft  (in the air) eastwardapart there overseas northward ahead everywhere sideways outward / inwardaway nowhere underfoot / overhead southwardanywhere somewhere backward / backwards toward/ towardsdownhill / uphill nearby downward upward / upwardsdownstairs / upstairs indoors / outdoors forward / forwards westward

Commonly Confused

In phrasal verbs, or "two-word verbs",  the adverb combines with the verb to make an expression.  Note the adverbs in these expressions (on the right) do not modify the verb by telling where.  To learn more about these "look alikes" see: Phrasal Verbs

VERB FOLLOWED BY PLACE ADVERBS PHRASAL VERBS / TWO-WORD VERBS

My dog wandered off. (off modifies where it wandered) The airplane took off.(off combines with take to form an expression: departed)

She put the cat out. (out modifies where she put)She put the fire out. (out combines with put to form an expression: extinguish) 

I pushed my cat away. (pushed modifies where she pushed it)I had my cat put away. (away combines with put to form an expression: euthanized)

We went in.  (in modifies where she went)We gave in. (in combines with gave to form an expression: surrender) 

He walked behind.  (behind modifies where he fell)He fell behind. (behind combines with fell to form an expression: progressed slowly)

Is it wrong to end a sentence with a preposition?

Speech changes as does fashion.  Grammarians can be prescriptive setting rules that can make speech sound unnatural.  Grammarians can also be "descriptive" noting how speech is used in different contexts and social situations.  The examples in this web site tend to be "descriptive".

 

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INFORMAL MORE  FORMAL

What's up?  (expression)What are you up to? (expression)

How are you? What is new?   What have you been doing lately?

Where's it at?  (unnecessary preposition) Where is it?At which place is it?  (awkward; overly formal speech)

Where are you going to?  (unnecessary preposition) Where are you going?  To which place are you going? (awkward; overly formal speech)

Where did you go out to?  (awkward use of multiple prepositions)   Where did you go? 

I don't know where he went to. (awkward; unnecessary preposition) I don't know where he went.  I don't know to which place he went. (awkward; formal speech)

Resources

"Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2007 November 21." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 25 Jan 2009. UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Language/ > 

Blue, Tina, "It's Usually Not Wrong to End a Sentence with a Preposition." 08 Aug 2000, http://grammartips.homestead.com/prepositions1.html Pinker, Steven, "Grammar Puss: the fallacies of language mavens.." The New Republic. 31 Jan 1994. <http://camba.ucsd.edu/files/misc/ll/grammar_puss.html>

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