Adverbs are words or groups of words which tell time, place, frequency or manner.
| I ate my lunch yesterday. I ate at that restaurant last week. |
She went there. She went downtown. |
Prepositions are usually followed by objects in prepositional phrases. They can also be used to indicate time, place, frequency, duration, reason, manner, or to show contrast.
| I ate my lunch at noon. I ate in the cafeteria. |
She went to the store. She walked into the house. |
*Do not use adverbs as objects of prepositions.
| Incorrect: | Correct: |
| I went to somewhere. I was busy at last night. John works in downtown. She came to home on yesterday. |
I went somewhere. I was busy last night. John works downtown. She came home yesterday. |
Be careful with words such as home, downtown, today, next/last week, etc. which are sometimes used as adverbs and sometimes used as nouns.
| As adverbs | As nouns |
| I will go back tomorrow. She went home last night. Next week I will travel to Iowa. |
Tomorrow is another day. They built a home in Oregon. Next week is my vacation. |
