What is the difference between an adverb and a preposition?

Answer 1

A preposition is a word which introduces a prepositional phrase e.g. "The boy sat on the fence", "Mary put her watch in the drawer", The team went to the showers"; on, in and to are prepositions. Other prepositions are "with", "for", "of".

An adverb is a word which modifies a part of speech, and often - but not always - ends in ly e.g. "She sang beautifully", "They painted speedily", "The boy sat sulkily on the chair". However, not all words which end in ly are adverbs e.g. lovely is an adjective. Some adverbs do not end in ly e.g. most, least.

*Some words are used both as adverbs or as prepositions, including locations such as out or around. The distinction is whether they have an object word. The word "in" by itself is an adverb, but "in the city" could be an adjectival or adverbial phrase, and "in" is acting as a preposition.

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The difference between adverbs and prepositions is that prepositions will always take an object, adverbs do not. You test for an object by asking the question, What? after the word in question. If it has an object, it is a preposition, if it doesn't, it is an adverb.

Ex. He wants to color outside.

In that sentence, it simply tells where he wants to color.

Ex. He wants to color outside the lines.

In that sentence, outside has an object. Outside what? Outside the lines.

Again, the entire prepositional phrase tells where he wants to color. Prepositional phrases can act like adverbs, OR adjectives in sentences.

Answer 2

An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb to provide more information about how, when, or where an action is done. A preposition shows the relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and other words in a sentence, indicating location, direction, time, or possession.