HERE vs THERE

WHAT IS THE CONFUSION?

HERE (adverb of place) means at this place: it is the opposite of

THERE• HERE can point to something near the speaker.

E.g. The book you want is here.• HERE can come after some prepositions of place.

E.g. The view is better over here.• Here can announce something the speaker is going

to say. E.g. Here is the weather. There will be snow tomorrow.

• Sentences can begin with HERE is, HERE are or HERE come(s). E.g. Here is the book you want.

THERE (adverb of place) means at that place: it is the opposite of

HERE• THERE can point to something in the situation you are

in. E.g. Look who’s over THERE by the bus stop, it’s Miss Chan.

• THERE can refer to someplace mentioned already. E.g. St. Bonaventure College is a good school. We studied THERE in 2000.

• THERE can come after some prepositions of place. E.g. What are you doing over THERE by the bus stop?

• Some exclamations begin with THERE. E.g. THERE you are!

So what confuses most students?

They use HERE when they mean THERE

and

THERE when they mean HERE

Let me give you an example.

• I visited a zoo in China last week. The condition here was horrible. As soon as we entered, we found rubbish in here everywhere. Monkeys and birds were put in the same cage and in here they fought for space and food.

What’s wrong with the paragraph we have just seen?

• When we refer to a place we visited, we are clearly talking about a place not immediately near us, so we should use there instead of here.

• So I visited a zoo in China last week. The condition there (in that zoo) was horrible. As soon as we entered, we found rubbish everywhere. Monkeys and birds were put in the same cage and there (inside that cage) they fought for space and food.

Now can you make changes to this paragraph?

• Let me tell you what I have done in my summer school. In here we have lessons and sports in the morning and afternoon. When we have lessons, we go to different classrooms according to the subjects we choose. The classrooms are big, in here we do not just have desks but we have book shelves and computers.