Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm not so sure about that. To my British ear, both "he walked forwards" and "he walked forward" are fine, although they have subtly different meanings. I'm struggling to formulate a rule, though.
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I'm of a similar mind, Harry. I've only had a few minutes to analyse it, but it seems to me that I generally use forwards/towards when it's an external/generic measurement or direction (he walked forwards to receive the medal / he walked off towards the west), but forward/toward when it's specific from the reference point of the subject of the action (he walked forward into the shadow / he pointed toward the tree).
Not certain that it's rigorous, and I doubt i ever learned it as a voiced rule, but it *seems* to be holding up as i think about it — for my subjective use, anyway.