What makes the difference between preposition and adverb? I don't get it and examples please thanks

The most useful key to distinguish preposition from adverb may be simply looking to see whether the word is tied to a NOUN/pronoun that functions as the OBJECT. But first, a couple of definitions.

As the very form of the word suggests, an ad-VERB [meaning 'that which is added to a verb'] is a word (or expression) that, first of all, modifies a VERB, but in fact, adverbs in English may modify a(n):

* verb - "ran QUICKLY", "spoke WELL"
* adjective - "VERY big", "It's SO quiet!"
* adverb - "spoke SO softly"

A brief definition - "The part of speech that modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb."

For what it's worth, adverbs commonly tell about PLACE (where), TIME (when) and MANNER (how, etc).


A PREPOSITION connects a verb to a NOUN (or pronoun or 'substantive') which is the OBJECT.

Ordinarily, the preposition comes BEFORE the noun/pronoun, but that order may change, especially in informal use:
a) in questions -"What are you writing with?" [Formal order: "With what are you writing?"]
b) in relative clauses, in which the verb points back to an object already mentioned -"Here's the book (that) I was looking for." [cf. use in main clause -"I was looking for it/the book.")

Note the the key difference is how the words are USED how they function in the sentence and NOT in the specific words used, or the form they take. It is true, and helps some, that -ly is a common adverbial ending. But there are many adverbs that do not take this ending. AND there are many words that function sometimes as prepositions, sometimes as adverbs. That's where checking for an OBJECT is so important.

Compare these:
"Put DOWN that gun!" (preposition - followed by object)
"Just sit DOWN!" (adverb indicating how to sit, NO object mentioned)
"He sat DOWN on the chair (down = adverb, on = preposition [followed by object 'the chair'])

http://www.english-the-easy-way.com/Adverbs/Adverbs.htm
http://grammar.uoregon.edu/prepositions/prepositions.html
http://grammar.uoregon.edu/prepositions/adv_prep.html
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=preposition
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/in

Prepositions: of, for, by, to, from, in.
Adverbs: quickly, strangely, abruptly, or adjectives that modify another adjective.
Prepositions do not "modify" a phrase; they indicate the object of the action of a verb, like "We went to Dallas;" "to" is the preposition indicating the place we went. "This letter is from the President;" "from" is the preposition. "All of the members were at the meeting;" "of" indicates who "all" refers to; in this case, not a verb, but a subject.

A preposition is a type of adposition which precedes its complement. An adposition performs a role similar to case marking, but is its own word rather than a part of another word - unless cliticised to become part of another word (sometimes grammaticalising over time as a form of case marking rather than adposition) - They are often used to introduce circumstances of location in place or time, and also circumstances of extent (distance and duration), manner, cause, contingency, accompaniment, role, matter and angle. A preposition is functionally related to the verb.
The prepositions in the above (in the order they appear - correct me if I miss any) are:of, to, of, to, of, over, of, to, of, in, of, to.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of prepositions, however they're likely to be the most common you encounter. Others include: around, across, from, with, without, at, since, until...

An adverb is any part of speech that modifies any of the other parts of speech that aren't nouns (ie: a modifier of verbs, adjectives and other adverbs), the conjunctions are also considered (in functional grammar) to be a part of the Adverbial group (note that in functional grammar, the Adverbial group is not adverbs, adverbs are part of the adverbial group as well). Time phrases are also, often considered as adverbs in English grammar.
Examples of adverbs are: well, almost, happily, slowly, pretty much anything ending in -ly

Prepositions modify a phrase, often in the form of indicating direction, location etc. etc. The help with how you would interpret a phrase given the context.

some examples - aboard, amongst, beside, despite, until, over, inside.


An adverb modifies any part of speech besides nouns. Usually adjectives or verbs

For example - He ran slowly. - slow modifies ran.
or - New York City is extremely large - extremely modifies large.