Adverbs of place answer the question où? (where?). They locate an action in space — here, over there, everywhere, nowhere, outside, elsewhere. French has a small but very expressive set of these adverbs, and one detail in particular trips up English speakers: French distinguishes between here and there less rigidly than English does. In modern spoken French, the word là has largely taken over from ici for both meanings, and you have to listen to context (and watch for the emphatic là-bas) to know which one is meant. This page covers the everyday place adverbs, the negative construction with nulle part, and the placement rules that determine where these words sit in a sentence.
Ici, là, là-bas — the deictic triplet
The classical system, the one French textbooks present, is a three-way distinction:
| French | English | Distance from speaker |
|---|---|---|
| ici | here | close to speaker |
| là | there (or here, in modern usage) | nearby or unspecified |
| là-bas | over there | visibly distant |
That table describes textbook French. The reality in everyday speech is messier: là has expanded to cover what ici used to mean, and most native speakers say je suis là (literally I'm there) where the textbook expects je suis ici. Ici still exists — it sounds slightly more formal or more deictically precise — but là is the default in conversation.
Je suis là, ne t'inquiète pas.
I'm here, don't worry. (modern, conversational)
Veuillez vous asseoir ici, monsieur.
Please take a seat here, sir. (formal, more precise)
Pose les sacs là, on les rangera plus tard.
Put the bags there, we'll sort them later.
Tu vois la montagne là-bas ? C'est le Mont Blanc.
See the mountain over there? That's Mont Blanc.
Là-bas is the unambiguous over there — distant, often visibly so. It is the only one of the three that has not shifted in meaning, and it is the right choice when you want to mark genuine distance from the speaker.
Mes parents habitent là-bas, dans la maison blanche.
My parents live over there, in the white house.
Partout — everywhere
Partout means everywhere. It is fully positive (no negation needed) and sits naturally at the end of the clause or inside the verb cluster in compound tenses, just like short time adverbs.
J'ai cherché mes clés partout, je ne les trouve pas.
I've looked for my keys everywhere, I can't find them.
Il y a des touristes partout à Paris en été.
There are tourists everywhere in Paris in summer.
On a partout vu des affiches du concert.
We saw posters for the concert everywhere. (partout between auxiliary and participle — more emphatic placement)
The two placements (j'ai cherché partout vs. j'ai partout cherché) are both possible; the post-participle placement is far more common and natural. The inside-the-verb position is reserved for literary or emphatic style.
Nulle part — nowhere (with ne)
Nulle part is the negative of partout. Like other French negatives (jamais, rien, personne, plus, aucun), it requires ne before the verb.
Je ne trouve mes clés nulle part.
I can't find my keys anywhere.
On ne va nulle part ce week-end, on reste à la maison.
We're not going anywhere this weekend, we're staying home.
Cette information ne se trouve nulle part sur le site.
This information can't be found anywhere on the site.
Several details matter.
Drop pas. When nulle part is in the sentence, it carries the negation. *Je ne vais pas nulle part is wrong — the negation is already complete.
❌ Je ne vais pas nulle part.
Incorrect — pas and nulle part cannot stack.
✅ Je ne vais nulle part.
I'm not going anywhere.
Position in compound tenses. Unlike most negatives (ne… pas, ne… rien, ne… jamais) which slot between auxiliary and participle, nulle part goes after the past participle.
Je ne suis allé nulle part hier.
I didn't go anywhere yesterday.
On n'a vu Marc nulle part.
We didn't see Marc anywhere.
This pattern groups it with aucun and personne, which also stay post-participle in compound tenses. Pas, rien, and jamais are the ones that go between auxiliary and participle.
Ailleurs — elsewhere
Ailleurs means elsewhere, somewhere else. It is register-neutral and very common.
Ce restaurant est trop bruyant, allons ailleurs.
This restaurant is too noisy, let's go somewhere else.
Elle a trouvé un travail ailleurs et elle déménage en septembre.
She got a job elsewhere and she's moving in September.
It also appears in fixed expressions where it shifts meaning into the discourse-marker realm: par ailleurs (moreover, incidentally) and d'ailleurs (besides, by the way). These are pure connectors, not place adverbs, but they are extremely common in spoken and written French and worth knowing immediately.
Par ailleurs, j'aimerais ajouter un point.
Moreover, I'd like to add a point. (formal connector)
D'ailleurs, tu as raison.
By the way / come to think of it, you're right.
Dehors and dedans — outside and inside
Dehors means outside (as an adverb of place, not as a preposition). Dedans means inside in the same adverbial sense.
Il fait beau, on mange dehors ce soir.
The weather's nice, we're eating outside tonight.
Mets ton manteau, il fait froid dehors.
Put your coat on, it's cold outside.
Le chat est dedans, ne le laisse pas sortir.
The cat is inside, don't let him out.
J'ai mis tes affaires dedans, dans le placard du couloir.
I put your things inside, in the closet in the hallway.
A crucial distinction: dehors / dedans are adverbs and stand alone — they do not take an object. To say outside the house or inside the box, you need the prepositions à l'extérieur de / en dehors de (outside of) or à l'intérieur de / dans (inside of).
✅ Le chien dort dehors.
The dog sleeps outside. (adverb — no object)
❌ Le chien dort dehors la maison.
Incorrect — dehors does not take an object.
✅ Le chien dort en dehors de la maison.
The dog sleeps outside the house. (preposition)
✅ Mets-le dans la boîte.
Put it in the box. (preposition)
✅ Mets-le dedans.
Put it inside. (adverb — no following noun, antecedent understood)
Other useful place adverbs
A few additional words round out the everyday set:
- quelque part (somewhere) — J'ai laissé mon parapluie quelque part dans le métro.
- n'importe où (anywhere) — Tu peux t'asseoir n'importe où.
- autour (around) — Il y avait du monde autour.
- en haut / en bas (upstairs / downstairs, up / down) — Les chambres sont en haut.
- devant / derrière as adverbs (in front / behind) — Toi devant, moi derrière.
Tu as vu quelque part ma trousse rouge ?
Have you seen my red pencil case anywhere?
Pose ton sac n'importe où, on s'en occupera plus tard.
Put your bag anywhere, we'll deal with it later.
La salle de bain est en haut, à droite.
The bathroom is upstairs, on the right.
Position in the sentence
Place adverbs follow the same general pattern as time adverbs, with one key difference: the short, generic place adverbs (ici, là, là-bas, partout, dehors, dedans, ailleurs) usually sit at the end of the clause rather than inside the verb cluster.
Il fait froid dehors.
It's cold outside. (dehors at end)
On va là-bas après le déjeuner.
We'll go over there after lunch.
In compound tenses, partout can sit either between auxiliary and participle (more literary) or after the participle (more conversational); the other place adverbs stay after the participle.
J'ai cherché partout. / J'ai partout cherché.
I looked everywhere. (both possible — first is more natural)
Je suis allé là-bas hier.
I went over there yesterday. (là-bas after participle — only option)
For the negative nulle part, the position is fixed: after the past participle in compound tenses, with ne before the auxiliary.
Je ne suis allé nulle part.
I didn't go anywhere.
A note on the pronoun y
When place is referred to anaphorically — there, picking up a previously mentioned location — French uses the pronoun y rather than a place adverb.
Tu vas à Paris ce week-end ? — Oui, j'y vais demain.
Are you going to Paris this weekend? — Yes, I'm going there tomorrow.
This is a distinct construction from the place adverbs covered on this page; see pronouns/y-and-en for the full treatment. The key takeaway here is that I go there in the sense of to the place we just mentioned is j'y vais, not *je vais là (which exists but means something more like I'm going right here).
Common Mistakes
❌ Je ne vais pas nulle part.
Incorrect — drop pas when nulle part is used; the negation is already complete.
✅ Je ne vais nulle part.
I'm not going anywhere.
❌ Je ne trouve nulle part mes clés.
Awkward — nulle part should follow the verbal element (participle or full verb), not separate it from its object.
✅ Je ne trouve mes clés nulle part.
I can't find my keys anywhere.
❌ Le chat est dehors la maison.
Incorrect — dehors is an adverb, not a preposition. Use en dehors de or à l'extérieur de.
✅ Le chat est en dehors de la maison.
The cat is outside the house.
❌ Je vais là chaque été.
Awkward — to refer back to a known place, use the pronoun y, not the adverb là.
✅ J'y vais chaque été.
I go there every summer.
❌ Je suis ici ! (shouted from the bathroom when someone is looking for you)
Sounds textbook — natural conversational French is je suis là !
✅ Je suis là !
I'm here!
Key takeaways
The core French place adverbs are ici, là, là-bas, partout, nulle part, ailleurs, dehors, dedans. The classical ici / là distinction has flattened in modern speech — là does double duty for here and there, and you reach for là-bas when you really want to mark distance. Partout and nulle part are an opposed pair: positive everywhere and negative nowhere, with nulle part requiring ne and dropping pas. Dehors and dedans are adverbs only — they cannot take an object, so outside the house requires the preposition en dehors de. And when you want to say there referring back to a place already mentioned, the answer is usually the pronoun y, not a place adverb.
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