When saying that someone is not at home, in the office or other place where you are currently located, do we say: a) ‚He’s not there at the moment‘ or b) ‚He’s not here at the moment‘?

The correct answer is b). ‚Here‘ means in this place or location, whereas ‚there‘ means the opposite – indicating that something is further away in a different location. Here and there are examples of adverbs of place.

Grammar point – adverbs of place

Adverbs of place describe where things are or happen, as well as movement. They answer the question ‚Where?‘ and don’t normally end in -ly. Usually, they are placed after the main verb or object, or at the end of a sentence/clause. They can go in the front of a sentence for emphasis; this is more common in written English. Sometimes they can be prepositions when they introduce a phrase that includes an object.

Below are some of the most common adverbs of place.

Above/Below	Backwards/Forwards/Downwards/ Upwards	Near by/ Far away
About	Between	Next
Ahead/Behind	East/West/North/South	On/Off
Around	In/Out	Over/Under
Anywhere/Everywhere/Nowhere/ Somewhere	Inside/Outside	Up/Down
Away	Here/There	Upstairs/Downstairs
Back	Near/Far

Examples

• Would you like to come over?
• I put the book back on the shelf.
• I walked upstairs to get something.
• I looked everywhere for my cat and found him downstairs.
• I couldn’t find my cat anywhere.
• There are a lot of nice shops near by/nearby.
• I moved backwards and lost my balance.
• She drove off in a hurry towards the school.
• At noon I headed out. However, I didn’t know whether I was heading North or East.

Note that ‚towards‘ is a preposition because it is always followed by a noun or pronoun.

• She drove off in a hurry towards the school. (NOT She drove off in a hurry towards.)