IN the following sentence what words are the adverbs? "Up went the curtain and down went our spirits."

I would choose Up and Down, only I thought they were prepositions? Now I am confused. thanks Pegg

You chose correctly. In this case up and down are adverbs because they modify the verb "went" by themselves, and not as part of a prepositional phrase.

To identify adverbs in a sentence like "Up went the curtain and down went our spirits," you can follow these steps:

1. Look for verbs: In this sentence, the verbs are "went" and "went."

2. Determine if the word modifies the verb: Adverbs typically modify verbs by providing information about how, when, where, or to what extent the action is performed.

Let's apply these steps to the sentence:

1. "Up went the curtain and down went our spirits."
- The first verb is "went," which describes the action of the curtain moving.
- The second verb is also "went," which describes the action of our spirits dropping.

2. Now, let's determine if "up" and "down" modify the verbs:
- "Up" modifies the verb "went" by providing additional information about the direction of the curtain's movement. This makes it an adverb.
- Similarly, "down" modifies the verb "went" by providing additional information about the direction of our spirits' decrease. Hence, "down" is an adverb as well.

Therefore, in the sentence "Up went the curtain and down went our spirits," "up" and "down" are adverbs because they modify the verbs "went" by themselves, without forming part of a prepositional phrase.