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If I want to say that someone went or turned to a direction that I don't know, how is it correct to say that?

I have a lot of words that I'm confused about. I don't know which ones are acceptable. (I don't want to sound weird)

This is the construction. One word (maybe an adverb?) is missing:

"He went to or turned to [X] direction"

The options for X that I am thinking about are:

  • somewhere, any, whatever, somewhat, whatsoever, whichever, whichsoever

So, my question is:

  1. Which one(s) are grammatical?

  2. Which one(s) have the right meaning for what I want to say?

  3. Are these words adverbs?

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    This phrase has more basic problems before considering what X is. Verb tense mismatch and missing preposition. "went or turn" are not the same tense, and as intransitive verbs they can't have a direct object (direction).
    – user3169
    Commented Nov 8, 2015 at 23:42
  • @Assiduous, first of all you need an adjective or a pronoun in that role. An adverb would not do. Whether some word is an adverb (or not) you can find in a dictionary.
    – Victor Bazarov
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 19:18
  • So - Emerson Fitipaldi approached an intersection. The through-route was blocked, so he must not have continued straight through the intersection. "He turned one way/direction or the other, [but I don't know which.]"
    – Adam
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 21:27
  • Can you give conversational context? It is possible that the phrasing you are looking for has no direct idiom in English, and corresponds to a few different constructions.
    – Senjougahara Hitagi
    Commented Dec 9, 2015 at 22:58

3 Answers 3

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Examples:

A police officer asks you where the person he is chasing went:

You might say, "He went in that direction."

often pointing or nodding your head to let the officer know what you mean.

in that direction is a prepositional phrase acting as an adverb.

If you are asking a question, you would say:

"In which direction did he go?"

Although grammatically correct, you do not hear Americans use that construction very much. My impression is that they seem to prefer:

"Where did he go?"

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  • Thank you for your answer, but I don't understand it because I asked about case that I don't know where the direction is. If I say that he went to THAT direction it means that I know, while I don't. Maybe I can say "He went to some direction"?
    – Virtuous Legend
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 20:28
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    Just as likely is, "Which way did he go?"
    – mkennedy
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 20:57
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    @Assiduous - But if you don't know what direction he went in, why are you even mentioning a direction? I think what you want might be expressed most simply as I don't know where he went.
    – stangdon
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 21:50
  • Because it's a language, and I can say it. It's not forbidden, so I would like to know this correct form of this possibility. I know of course other options how to get rid of my question, but I would like to get an answer to my question. By the way, if you want to say that "line must be axis, because it must turn to (somewhere?) direction" (In this sentence the importance of this word is very noticeable.
    – Virtuous Legend
    Commented Nov 9, 2015 at 21:57
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You might be looking for the adjective "some"

He went in some direction

Unlike scalars, vectors point along some direction.

That is how you can talk about unknown or unspecified directions. It's very similar to the words:

  • somebody
  • something
  • somewhere
  • sometime
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If I want to say that someone went or turned to a direction that I don't know, how is it correct to say that?

He went in an unknown direction.

He turned in an unknown direction.

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