wat makes sense: downhill or down the hill?

Question

me mum asked me this question for no reason @ all!

Answer 1

Both-

'Downhill' is the direction of movement, expressive or literal.
example: I prefer downhill skiing over cross country. OR Poor Bob, its all downhill from here now that he has reached the top of the coorporate ladder.

'Down the hill' is a place
example: You need to go down the hill and then turn left to get to the bus stop.

Answer 2

To sum up, you can use downhill all the time, but sometimes down the hill also makes sense. You would use 'downhill' when talking about a struggle (he lost his job and went downhill from there), and 'down the hill' when talking physically (she lives down the hill from the school).

("He lost his job and went down the hill" does not make sense, but "she lives downhill from the school" does)

I looked at downhill on Askoxford.com:

• adverb & adjective /downhil/ 1 towards the bottom of a slope. 2 into a steadily worsening situation.

• noun /downhil/ 1 a downward slope. 2 Skiing a downhill race.

I hope this makes sense and your mum is happy with the answer!

Answer 3

Mesun's answer is good. Downhill tends to be used to describe a general direction (Water flows downhill, downhill skiing) while down the hill is used with a specific action (The house was pushed down the hill by the wall of water). Neither is of course exclusive and can be swapped around as you want. All languages are fluid and change as needed. As long as you are understood by the person to whom you are speaking. (last sentence is grammatically correct with no dangling participle, but who speaks that way?)

Answer 4

I would say that 'downhill' is the direction you are going and 'down the hill' is the destination!!!

Answer 5

is funny cause the real english is down the hill, but we use downhill dont we

Answer 6

down the hill,

Answer 7

downhill that make more sense then any-other

Answer 8

i wud say downhill

Answer 9

it depends on the context