Prepositions – Can “Against” and “Towards” Mean the Same?

prepositionsword-choice

After I found this website, I have a chance to ask questions I used to hesitate to use in a sentence as I am not a native English speaker even though I am really interested in learning English.

Anyways,

Can these sentences be legit and give the same meaning?

  1. I feel something towards her.
  2. I feel something against her.

Do they have same meaning and also where can we not use against and towards interchangeably if we can use them interchangeably sometimes.

Edit:

Okay, it seems while feelings are coming to play they cause different meaning but where can I not use them interchangeably when there is no feelings involved?

Best Answer

Against and towards can be used interchangeably in some circumstances, but I don't think this is one of them. In this case, towards would imply affection and against would imply distate or dislike.

An example of a situation where they could be used interchangeably would be "Please apply the overpayment against/towards my existing credit card balance."

As for a rule, I'm not sure there is one. Maybe if emotions are involved, don't use them interchangeably but if there are no feelings involved, then it is ok to do so