Paragraph below vs. below paragraph

Question

Which is correct, "paragraph below" or "below paragraph"?

A Google search on the above phrases reveals that the former phrase is much more common - see the table below.

Contrast this with "paragraph above" or "above paragraph" whose occurrences do not exhibit such a strong preference. To me (native English) both phrases sound natural, but the phrase "below paragraph" sounds very awkward, but I can't explain why. Is there any explanation for this asymmetry?

Are such phrases governed by any general usage rules?

Are web searches reliable for inferring correct usage?

Google search on Web alt.usage.english

"paragraph below" 45300 69
"below paragraph" 5780 1
"paragraph above" 64200 363
"above paragraph" 84800 363

Usenet · Accepted Answer

Bill Dubuque (Email Removed) wrote on 24 Dec 2003:
[nq:1]Which is correct, "paragraph below" or "below paragraph"? A Google search on the above phrases reveals that the former phrase ... "paragraph below" 45300 69 "below paragraph" 5780 1 "paragraph above" 64200 363 "above paragraph" 84800 363[/nq]
There are no strict usage rules for these expressions, as far as I know. It seems to be a matter of what pleases the ears of native speakers. Writers also use "See the following paragraph" instead of "See the below paragraph". That "sound-sense" of the language can come from reading broadly and from including literary stylists in what one regularly reads. Otherwise, one is stuck reading the kind of stuff one writes and using the essays of others in the field as models for one's own.
I prefer "paragraph below" to its alternative order and "paragraph above" to its alternative order. I find "below paragraph" poor style and "above paragraph" to violate my sound-sense of the "natural" order of words in the phrase, but the latter is nowhere near as grating on my ear as the former.
Web searches are not reliable for inferring correct usage, no. There are too many repetitions of the same page, too many examples of poor writing by native speakers of English, and too many examples of usage errors by non-native speakers. As with all things, it is best to evaluate the source of the examples you use to bolster your choices and opinions. If you can point to examples of the usage you favor in the work of good writers (not necessarily famous writers), that will be better support than the essentially meaningless numbers provided by the number of hits for the search you made and by changing the search terms slightly, you might get different counts.

Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Which is correct, "paragraph below" or "below paragraph"?[/nq]
Case 1 is correct: case 2 is unidiomatic.
If you want to use the rubric of case 1 you should probably write "preceding paragraph."
[nq:1]To me (native English) both phrases sound natural, but the phrase "below paragraph" sounds very awkward, but I can't explain why. Is there any explanation for this asymmetry?[/nq]
No, but English is full of asymmetries, cf. the difference between a big fat fellow and a fat big fellow.

Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)

Paragraph below vs. below paragraph

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