Adverbs of place and movement

Adverbs of place and movement

What are adverbs?

An adverb is a word that modifies (describes) a verb (he sings loudly), an adjective (very tall), another adverb (ended too quickly), or even a whole sentence (Fortunately, I had brought an umbrella). Adverbs often end in -ly, but some (such as fast) look exactly the same as their adjective counterparts.

Placement of adverbs

Place adverbs as close as possible to the words they are supposed to modify. Putting the adverb in the wrong spot can produce an awkward sentence at best and completely change the meaning at worst. Be especially careful about the word only, which is one of the most often misplaced modifiers. Consider the difference between these two sentences:

- Phillip only fed the cat. - Phillip fed only the cat.

Adverbs of place

There are many different types of adverbs – some describe how we do something (adverbs of manner), some describe how often we do something (adverbs of frequency), and others describe when we do something (adverbs of time). When we want to say where something happens, we use adverbs of place.

Adverbs of place indicate where an action occurs. The main adverbs of place are:

Common adverbs of place

The most common adverbs of place are ‘here’ and ‘there’. We use ‘here’ when the position is near the speaker, and ‘there’ when the position is further away. These two words can go at the beginning or at the end of a phrase. For example:

• Mr. Jones, your nine o’clock appointment is here.
• Where’s my pen? Ah, here it is!
• The documents are here.
• I’ll sit here, and you can sit there.
• There’s my coat, on the back of the chair.
• The socket is there, under the window.

Here and there

‘Here’ and ‘there’ are common adverbs of place:

• He has worked here for ten years.
• When he went to Australia, he stayed there for three weeks.
• Come here!
• Wait there!
• We can also use ‘here’ and ‘there’ at the beginning of a sentence for emphasis:
• Here comes the bus. At last!
• Here it is! I’ve been looking for it for ages!
• There you are! Why are you so late?

Movement

Many adverbs come after a verb to express a particular kind of movement. For example:

• I can hear the children running around upstairs.
• Fiona is moving away next year. She’s going to Australia.
• We need to climb over this gate to get in.
• The salespeople are just coming into the building now.
• He’s getting off the train.
• The builder is coming down the ladder.