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For some reasons, I have difficulties with determining which part of speech is навстречу. For instance, something like that:
Она шла ему навстречу.
Adverb or preposition? And how do you usually determine it, e.g. how are pupils in school taught to do it? Thanks for help.
When навстречу does not have a dependent word, it is an adverb
Навстречу шла она. Она шла навстречу
Whenever you have a dependent noun or a pronoun (кому?) in the dative or in older texts in the genitive, then it is a preposition, no matter where it stands.
Она шла ему навстречу. Она шла навстречу ему. Навстречу поезду мчалась машина. Машина мчалась поезду навстречу.
(Словарь Ожегова)
Adverb or preposition?
Она шла ему навстречу.
A preposition normally goes before a noun or pronoun (it is "pre-posed" to a noun or pronoun), so it's not a preposition in this sentence.
But what about a similar sentence?
Она шла навстречу ему.
Here it could be analysed as a preposition.
