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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)

The guards wouldn't let us go through.

(through modifies where we couldn't go)

He walked in back of us.

(in back of us modifies where he walked)

We walked through the area.

(through the area modifies where we walked)

Adverb and Prepositional Phrases for Place

We went _________ . (adverb)
aboard / onboard

We went _________ the ship. (preposition)

before

in

past

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about (around)

behind

inside

through

above (overhead)

below

near

throughout

across

beneath

next (adv) next to (prep)

to

after

beside / besides

off

under

along

between

on

underneath

around

beyond

out (adv) out of (prep)

up

aside

by

outside

within

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)

eastward

apart

there

overseas

northward

ahead

everywhere

sideways

outward / inward

away

nowhere

underfoot / overhead

southward

anywhere

somewhere

backward / backwards

toward/ towards

downhill / uphill

nearby

downward

upward / upwards

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

MORE FORMAL
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>