Adverbs of Place

Adverbs are a part of speech which describe, modify and give more information about verbs, adjectives or adverbs themselves. Adverbs of Place are those adverbs which indicate the location, direction and distance of action which takes place. Adverbs of place are generally placed after main verb in a sentence.

Usage of Adverbs of Place

Since, we use Adverbs of Place to describe location, direction and distance lets study them individually with example

1. Adverbs of Place Expressing Location

Adverbs of Place are used to show the location which means these Adverbs tell us about where somebody or something is present. The most common usage is through ‘here’ and there’. They give information about location relative to the speaker. While here represents the location “near the speaker”, there means “away from the speaker”.

  • Come here and tell me what happened.
  • The dog is waiting there.
  • Take out old clothes from store room and put them on the top of the dressing table.
  • Let us put the china wares in the cupboard.
  • The kid is hiding behind you.
  • Teapot is inside the kitchen drawer.
  • Look below it.

Some adverbs of place only give us the idea of a location and not the exact specific place. The usually end in ‘where’

  • He is there somewhere in the woods.
  • He is nowhere to be seen.

2. Adverbs of Place Expressing Direction

Adverbs of Place are used to show the direction which means these Adverbs tell where somebody or something is moving.

  • Walk towards the junction.
  • Let us go through the tunnel.
  • He went westwards.
  • We are supposed to move eastwards.
  • Let us go along the path.

3. Adverbs of Place Expressing Distance

Adverbs of Place are used to show the distance which means these Adverbs tell how far people or things are.

  • His house is 10 miles far from here.
  • Can we go there in the orchard and play?
  • We are in Chicago. Detroit is 283 miles away.

4. Adverbs of Place Expressing Both Location and Direction

  • All my friends went abroad.
  • I ran uphill for two hours.
  • Let us go and play outdoors.

Confusion between Adverbs of Place and Prepositions

Adverbs of Place like on, off, over, down, behind, in etc can also be used as Prepositions. Prepositions are the words which show relationship between subjects and objects in sentences while adverbs

Examples

Word Usage as Adverb Usage as Preposition
on She danced on continuously for hours. Take my bag and put it on the the table.
off Get off my car! The hurricane took the roofs off the houses.

Point to remember

Adverbs of Place ending in -wards denote direction and Adverbs of Place ending in -where denote place.

  • ending in -wards : westwards, eastwards, upwards, backwards etc.
  • ending in -where : somewhere, everywhere, nowhere etc.