Adverb of Place

Adverbs of place tell us where things happened – they change or add meaning to a sentence. They’re also sometimes called spatial adverbs.

Adverbs of place are usually used after the main verb or clause that they modify.

Many adverbs of place indicate movement in a particular direction and end in the letters “-ward or -wards”.
An adverb of place always talks about the location where the action of the verb is being carried out.
Adverbs of place can be directional, indicate distant orcan indicate an object’s position in relation to another object. For example, below, between, above, behind, through, aroundand so forth.
Adverbs of place are normally placed after a sentence’s object or main verb.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
up	The kite is up there!
down	The shop is down the road.
around	They looked around the park.
north	The house is north of here.
south	She walked south.
east	We’re going east.
west	It’s to the west.

They can also refer to the distance of something, such as how close or how far away something is.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
nearby	The beach is nearby.
far away	She lives far away.
miles apart	The two shopping centres are miles apart.
close by	The new zoo is close by.

Adverbs of place can also tell us the position of an object in relation to another object.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
above	He lives above the shop.
below	We keep the mugs on the shelf below the glasses.
in front	The hedges are in front of the house.
behind	There are flowers behind the garden bench.
through	The exit is through that door.
around	There are lots of people around.
on top	Birds sit on top of their nests.
underneath/beneath	The plant’s roots grow underneath/beneath the ground.

Other adverbs of place show movement in a particular direction. These typically end in the suffix -wards.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
forwards	She’s walking forwards.
backwards	To moonwalk, you have to learn to walk backwards.
upwards	Look upwards and you’ll see the sky.
downwards	The elevator is going downwards.
onwards	We have to keep moving onwards.

There is a number of adverbs of place which end in the suffix -where. They express the idea of a location, rather than a specific one.

Adverb of Place	Example Sentence
somewhere	Her glasses have to be around here somewhere.
nowhere	The last marble was nowhere to be found.
everywhere	In the spring, there are flowers everywhere.
anywhere	Is there anywhere left to go?

Adverbs of Place ending in -where

Adverbs of place that end in -where express the idea of location without specifying a specific location or direction. For example:

I would like to go somewhere warm for my vacation.
I keep running in to Sally everywhere!
Is there anywhereI can find a perfect plate of spaghetti around here?
I have nowhere to go.

Adverbs of Place that are expressing both location and movement

Some adverbs of place express both movement and location at the same time. For example:

The child went indoors.
He lived and worked abroad.
Water always flows downhill.
The wind pushed us sideways.

Here are some sentences using adverbs of place-

• Put the book here on the table.
• I left my keys over there on the counter.
• The cat likes to hide everywhere in the house.
• I looked for my phone everywhere but I couldn’t find it.
• She went upstairs to her bedroom.
• He went downstairs to the kitchen.
• The party is outside in the backyard.
• He went inside to get a coat.