You don't say 'I rode my bike toward the park.'?

I don't know about American English, but in England we wouldn't say toward, but towards.

Basically when you use to, as in he was walking to church, the church is his destination. If you say he was walking towards church he is just moving in the direction of the church. He may be going to church, or he may walk past the church or stop somewhere else before he gets to the church

As Izzy says, British English uses 'towards' more often than 'toward'.

A. When I saw Jake, he was walking toward his office.

You can say 'toward(s)' because you saw which direction he was walking in, and you know where his office is. He may or may not have arrived there.

B. When I saw Jake, he was walking to his office.

You can only say 'to' if you know he was going to his office (e.g. because he told you).

Can anyone explain to me why two good and clear answers on a grammar question get a thumb down?
Sometimes answers to a grammar question are answered so it is impossible to understand the answer or they are more or less wrong. Still these answers do not get a thumb down

In the following, the second one assumes you know his destination . The first one says he was heading towards his office but the destination is not assumed . He might have been going to the shops near his office .
A. When I saw Jake, he was walking toward his office.
B. When I saw Jake, he was walking to his office.


If you wished to talk about after his arrival you would say :
He walked TO work . At work, he noticed his shoes were muddy .
If you wished to break up the trip you would say :
He walked TOWARD work but was stopped by construction .
C. He walks to work every day. (O)
D. He walks toward work every day. (X)
This is incorrect for reasons above . Native speakers do say D, but TO and TOWARD are not interchangeable . Ask yourself do you want to break and talk about the travel...if so use toward . If you want them to arrive at their destination and then talk about what happened next, use to .

Toward is more formal, say for report writing, whereas towards is more informal say for a novel . The British almost always use towards regardless . Modern trends in universal English is toward towards .

The usual reason for thumbs down is someone dislikes someone else . It has nothing to do with the quality of the post . There are many fine thoughtful posts that get thumbed down . Just ignore the thumbs like I do .

I usually ignore thumbs weather up or down.
I now and then give a thumb up when I like the answer. As you say thoughtful posts
Thumb dwon because you do not like someone?? Does a2k stand for away to kindergarten?

I dont know why they have it . They introduced it with the new format as far as I know, which was some time back . Going by the number of people posting and reading, and in my experience there are only ever one or two thumbs up or down, then it seems rather pointless and very rarely used by the vast majority of people . I just ignore it . Other people's opinion has nothing to do with me .

don't try using towards in this part of Canada. Someone will roll their eyes at you. Someone else might say something snarky about you being snotty.

Really ? We tend to towards here...towards is snooty ? The same people separated by a common language .

No one would ever do that with me, Beth, Canada or elsewhere, because I would NEVER say that.

I would just say "He done went that way," and point, ya know?

towards is snotty/snooty

anything that sounds too British (English/Irish/Scots) tends to get a 'face'

yeah, that schtick would work well

In some 3rd world countries they point with their mouth and a nod of their head . Sort of pushing their lips in the direction . I always thought that was a bit lazy, but I guess if you are not getting many calories...

It seems if I ever visit Canada I have to look out for mouses (big ones with horns) and being too towards ...anything else ?

so who'd you piss off that's following you around with the happy down-thumb?

I think I know of two, as they both get very hysterical during arguments . Am I allowed to say ?

given that all the number gives you is a differential, there's really no way to know how many people (alters?) are involved

You're right. I have several people who follow me around and give me the thumbs down, but there are many more than that who get angry during arguments and who I have pissed off, so that doesn't tell me much about who's doing it.

You can bet on one thing though. Whoever it is will never admit it. At least not if they have any sense. They wouldn't want others to know how childishly they are acting.