Away and away from

Away is an adverb. Away from is a multi-word preposition.

Away

We most commonly use away to mean ‘from here to another place’ or ‘disappearing from sight’:

• Please go away and leave her alone.
• He walked away without saying anything.
• The floods were really serious this year but most of the high water has flowed away now.

Away can also mean ‘not present’ or ‘not here’:

• She’s away at the moment but can I get her to ring you when she returns?

Away can refer to ‘the length of time from the time of speaking’ or to ‘the distance from a place’. It comes after the time or distance phrase:

• The children are getting very excited cos our trip to China is only a week away.
• The start of the football season is two months away but everyone still keeps talking about football.
• The town is only three miles away.

Away from

When we talk about the distance between two places, we can use far away from:

• We’re now in Rome. How far away from Rome is Naples? (the same as: How far is Rome from Naples?)

We sometimes use away from the office meaning ‘not in’. It is commonly used in email auto-replies:

• [out-of-office auto-reply on an email]
• I am away from the office until next Tuesday (Sept 21st) and will answer your email as soon as possible after that date.

We can use away from to refer to movement:

• As he drove away from her house, he felt sad.