Learn English – Can we say “I like there” or “I like here” in American English

word-usage

Let's say someone told me that he was from a particular country, can I say "I like there." to that person to mean "I like that place."? Also, can I say "I like here." to mean that I like the place I'm at?

I'm wondering if we can say these in American English because there is a difference between BE and AE in terms of the usage of "there" in those kind of sentences as far as I know. For example, from what I heard, British people don't say sentences like "I visited there." while Americans can say it.

Best Answer

The circumstances under which you can say I like here and I like there are very narrow, when here and there are your choices and you are turning the words into ad hoc labels for the two locations:

For this part of the show, you can stand here or there.
-- I like here.

If we are referring to the ambience of a place, we say I like it here or I like it there as Lambie says in his answer.

The reason for this is that these words are deictic, referring to more than a mere location: they refer to the location from a certain perspective, usually the speaker's, and so owing to that complexity they do not serve as complements of like.

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