Learn English – Prepositions of Movement with to walk

prepositions

Original sentence: "There was the last street I needed to walk before reaching the park."

Corrected sentence: "There was one last street I needed to walk down before reaching the park."

Question: Why do you need the 'down' preposition? If the reason is just to make it more clear wouldn't the sentence be fine without it?

Best Answer

Prepositions can be combined with verbs in English to form "phrasal verbs." When they do this, they're really an adverb (or "particle"), not a preposition.

Most common prepositions can also work as these "particles."

In some cases it changes the meaning of the verb entirely, in other cases it's just a form of emphasis or to communicate the idea of "completely" (particularly with up).

I broke the box (The box has sustained damaged and is unusable)

I broke down the box (The box has been taken apart but can still be used if put back together)

Down and up are often used as these particles with verbs of motion to communicate that the motion happens along the entire length of a distance, such as a street, etc.