Adverbs of Place

This lesson is on adverbs of place.

so adverbs of place answer the question where they tell us where something happened they can refer to direction a distance position or movement they usually go towards the end of the sentence and we need to look at adverbs of place and prepositions a little bit carefully adverbs of place when they refer to direction running uphill is exhausting let’s drive down there tomorrow save yourself run away the ship sailed southeast the woods are located north of the town crowd gazed upwards at the stars in all these cases the adverb is in italics to make it stand out easy out.

phone to distance my friend’s house is nearby the nearest supermarket is not far away Glasgow and Edinburgh are about 50 miles apart and the last example is more of a specific distance the first two are general distances.

when they refer to a position or a location we always go abroad in the summer your glasses are here Tom lives above a restaurant the slow runners started falling behind they looked around but couldn’t find their dog look up there.

What kind of bird is that?

adverbs of place can refer to movement the dog walked forwards.

Close your eyes and walk backwards.

after a hard day at work she was finally homeward bound the train sped westwards at maximum speed the soldiers marched onwards eager to get out of the cold.

Now we need to look at adverbs of place and prepositions a little bit closely because they often get confused.

the simple explanation is that prepositions act on and require an object which is a noun or a pronoun adverbs act on verbs adjectives and other adverbs and have no need of an object Jim injured his knee when he fell down he had to use crutches and had problems going down the stairs.

So in the first case is an adverb of place he fell down it says where did he fall and then the second case down is a preposition down the stairs and another example is if you need some fresh air you will need to go outside it’s a square we need to go or for young children we can say young children often color outside the lines in this case outside is a preposition if we want to get really technical you can say outside the lines is an adverbial phrase as it describes where the children color outside the lines so outside the lines is the adverbial phrase which is comprised of a preposition and a noun.