I saw the film "Love Actuary" the other day and came up with this question. Do you remember a woman who is in love with a desighner at the same company for like two years and ...days and ...hours, (forgot their names). There was a scene where she was talking on the phone to her brother and she said ""party party party down there?"". I just wonder why that was "down there" because I have also seen a man saying ""What's happening up there?"" on the phone to his friend in another film and both of the scene seemed to be just like the same situation. Are up and down interchangeable? If not, how do you know when to use up or down? Thank you in advance.
The title of the film is "Love Actually".
Up and down are not interchangeable. They refer to relative positions. Ex. Someone is downstairs in a house and hears a crash upstairs. He then could ask, "What's going on up there?" refering to upstairs because it is up above him. If the situation reversed, he can ask "What is happening down there."
Down also refers to anywhere away from yourself. If you think there is a party going on three miles from you, you can ask "Is there a party down there?" Up would not make sense in such a situation.
Up and down can also refer to relative geographic location. Pretend someone is in the US and is calling a relative in Canada (north). They can ask, "What's happening up there?" meaning in Canada, cause it is relatively north. The converse would be true if the someone in the US is calling a friend in Brazil. Since Brazil the south, the American (USA) can ask the friend, "What's going on down there?"
I'd say that they're mostly interchangeable. You might tend to use "up" if it's uphill (and "down" similarly). There is also a tendency to use "up" when it's north of you (or of some reference point). Where they clash use either but "up" = "north" is more for larger distances. This is only a product of the converntional way of mapping. There are no hard & fast rules though.
Thanks, Tiffany and Jim. I think I`m starting to understand that. Let me please ask another question. How about this?
You are at a restaurant and there is a gentle upward slope in front of the restaurant. If you walk the slope for minuts, then take a left turn at a corner and there is a supermarket at the bottom of the street(flat street).
If someone asks you how to get to the supermarket from the restaurant, how would you answer? Am I right to say ""Walk up the street and take a left turn at that corner then walk down the bottom""? I`d like to know how native English speakers put it. Also, does this sound polite/impolite?
Thank you.
I'm not sure what you mean by the bottom of a flat street. Do you mean at the end of the flat street?
Yes, I meant at the end of the flat street. The bottom of a flat street doesn`t make sense? Ok, well, I`m wondering when people say "I`m walking down the street", are they actually walking downward? Even if it`s just an expression that means to walk, do you still say "walking down the street" when you are walking upward?
I think he/she means the flat street intersecting the one going downhill.
"Head up this street, make a left at the corner, then head all the way down to the bottom."
Oops. Sorry, I didn't catch your last message before my last post.
You say "walk down the street" even if the street is flat. However, if you're obviously heading uphill on a sloping street, it wouldn't make any sense to say that you're walking down it, so in this case, say "walk up."
If the street goes up and down, just say "walk down the street." Nobody's really going to care whether you say up or down because most likely they'll understand what you mean.
Thanks, now it`s very clear! So in a situation like that "down" doesn`t literally mean "downward". Thanks again.
As Bill said, you can "walk down the street," even when it's flat. You can even walk up a street, even when it's flat. In both cases, it simply means to walk along the street.
An exception is in Manhattan, where up means north and down means south.
What if you're walking along an east-west street on Manhattan.
It looks like I totally contradicted Tiffany but looks can be deceiving. Actually I hadn't read her post when I posted mine (that happens).
Definitely inside the one building "up" and "down" are "up" and "down" literally.
If the party were three miles from you, though, you could use "up". You'd definitely use "up" if it were three miles uphill especially if it's a steeep hill. If it were three miles north, you might use "up" too.
Three miles, ay? What's that in real money? About five kilometres.
I second the posts about walking up and down a street. I'll add that perhaps the connexion between "up" and north is strengthened the further you're going. Also the connexion between "up" and literally upwards is strengthened as the slope becomes steeper.
In Manhattan, they usually indicate east or west when you have to walk on a crosstown street. Buses that travel east or west are referred to as crosstown buses. My recollection is that people there are pretty consistent about using up and down to refer only to north and south.
I agree that someone in Manhattan is more likely to use up or down when longer distances are involved, in the sense that someone might simply tell you to walk to Sixth Avenue, turn right and go one block, with no mention of up or down. But people will usually not tell you do walk down a street when that involves going north. That's how it seemed to me, anyway, during the eight years I lived there.
The more I think about it, we native English speakers often use "up the street" and "down the street" interchangeably when we aren't really thinking of a specific location or direction:
"Where do you live?"
"Oh, I just live up the street."
"Oh, I just live down the street."
In this case, it doesn't really matter which term you use unless you want to be specific, i.e. giving directions, or just plain nitpicky.