Teaching Students About Adverbs of Place

What is an Adverb of Place?

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

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

How do you use adverbs of place?

An adverb of place is always used to talk about the location where the verb’s action is being carried out. Adverbs of place are usually placed after a sentence’s object or main verb. However, adverbs of place can be directional.

To learn more about how to use adverbs of place with your students accurately, check out these simple adverbs of place rules:

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 where the verb’s action is being carried out.
Adverbs of place can be directional, indicate distantly, or indicate an object’s position about another thing. For example, below, between, above, behind, through, around, and so forth.
Adverbs of place are typically placed after a sentence’s object or main verb.

28 Examples of Adverb of Place

Adverbs of place can be directional, which means they tell us the direction of something. For example:

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 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 centers are miles apart.
close by	The new zoo is close by.

Adverbs of place can also tell us the position of an object about another thing.

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.
backward	To moonwalk, you have to learn to walk backward.
upwards	Look upwards, and you’ll see the sky.
downwards	The elevator is going downwards.
onwards	We have to keep moving onwards.

There are several 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 into Sally everywhere!
Is there anywhere I can find a perfect plate of spaghetti around here?
I have nowhere to go.

Adverbs of Place that express both location and movement

Some adverbs of place describe 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.

Adverbs of Place that are also prepositions

Many adverbs of place can also be used as prepositions. When used as prepositions, they must be followed by a noun. Examples of adverbs of place that are also prepositions include:

I am wearing a necklace around my neck.
Let’s hide behind the shed.
John made his way carefully down the cliff.
I dropped the letter in the mailbox.

FAQ: Adverbs of Place

Is home an adverb of place?
While the word ‘home’ is usually a noun, it can also be used in some instances as an adverb of place.

‘Home’ isn’t a specific, physical place – it’s a different place for everyone and is even sometimes described as a feeling – which is why it can be used as an adverb.

For example, the sentence, ‘I went home,’ works as an adverb of place that tells us where the speaker ‘went.’

Where is an adverb placed in a sentence?

When modifying a sentence, adverbs can be placed in four positions:

In the beginning.
In the end.
Before all the other verbs.

What is an adverb of place and time?

Adverbs of time are used to say when something happens. They are commonly used at the end of a sentence but may also be used at the beginning in some instances. Examples of adverbs of time include:

I often eat vegetarian food.

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

John looked around, but he couldn’t see the monkey.
I searched everywhere I could think of.
I’m going back to school.

Are ‘Here’ and ‘There’ adverbs of place?

‘Here’ and ‘there’ are some of the most common adverbs of place. They give a location relevant to the speaker rather than another subject or object in the sentence. ‘Here’ means in the same place as the speaker, and ‘there’ means someplace away from the speaker.

Examples of ‘here’ and ‘there’ as an adverb of place: