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Please let me know when it is right to use 'toward' and 'towards'. Are they interchangeable in their usage? Is either of them meant to be exclusively used in some scenarios?
Is there some common rule governing other similar pairs:
afterward/afterwards
onward/onwards
inward/inwards
outward/outwards
I can't say it better than Grammar Girl
"Toward" and "towards" are both correct and interchangeable: you can use either one because they mean the same thing. Many sources say the "s" is more common in Britain than in the United States, so you should take into account what the convention is in your country, and use "towards" in Britain and "toward" in the U.S.
My take on it is to say the whole sentence to yourself. Just choose which sounds better to your ears. As far as I know, the same thing is true of the other prepositions in your question.
