SEMANTICS: PLACE ADVERBS AND LINKERS

1. Interrogator

>    on (=where)

on vius?	where do you live?
d’on véns?	where do you come from?

2. Adverbs

>    ací, aquí, allí (=here, there) marking a triple deixis, but the first and the second ones, as it happens with demonstratives, tend to be reduced to just one. There is a variant allà mainly used when referring to movement (directions).

ací no tenim electricitat	there’s no electricity here
no ho deixis allí, sisplau	don’t leave it there, please
no t’he vist per allà	I haven’t seen you over /around there

>    endavant >< enrere / endarrere (= ahead >< behind)

camina tu per endavant	you walk ahead
les caixes són aquí darrere	the boxes are at the back/ behind

>    a prop >< lluny (= near >< far)

Mes/mos/els meus pares viuen a prop (d’ací)	my parents live near (here)
això cau molt lluny	that’s far away

>    amunt >< avall (= up[side] >< down[side]); also dalt >< baix

he oblidat els paquets (allà) dalt	I’ve forgotten the parcels up (there)/ upstairs
la llibreria és per avall/allà baix	the bookshop is down (there) / downstairs

> pertot (arreu) >< enlloc (=everywhere >< nowhere)

hi ha gent pertot arreu avui	there are people everywhere today
no els trobo enlloc	I can’t find them anywhere

3. Prepositions expressing place

>    a (=in, at). It is the main preposition to express place without movement

vivim a Barcelona	we live in Barcelona
treballa a l’hospital	(s)he works at hospital
sóc a la facultat	I’m at college

>    en (=in, on).

visc en una casa molt vella	I live in a very old house
deixa les borses en la taula	leave the bags on the table

>    sobre >< sota

duus el capell sobre/en el cap, no ho veus?	you’re wearing your hat on your head, don’t you see it?
el gat s’ha amagat sota la taula	the cat has hidden under the table

4. Most previous adverbs may also work like prepositions. Some of them become compound preposition when followed by preposition de, though some of them may undergo certain morphological transformations:

d’ací a una hora serà de nit	within an hour it’ll be night
hem aparcat davant la porta	we’ve parked in front of the door
saps qui era (dar)rere tu/teu?	you know who was behind you?
vivim prop d’ací	we live near here
ens agrada viatjar lluny de la ciutat	we like travelling far away from town