顺着: along, following (a path, a lead)
【高48】介词 / prepositions (方向、路径)
Tone colorsā tone 1á tone 2ǎ tone 3à tone 4a neutral
顺着 + path or direction + verb: you move, or something flows, in the natural direction of a line: “along, following”. 雨水顺着我的头发滴了下来; 顺着这条路一直走. The phrase goes before the verb.
Figuratively, 顺着 follows someone's wish or trail: 顺着他的意思说 (go along with what he means), 顺着线索查 (follow up a lead), 顺着您的话问 (pick up on what you have just said).
Neighbours: 沿着 keeps to an edge or line (the bank, the coast, the wall); 顺着 stresses the direction of the slope or current (its opposite is 逆着); 跟着 follows a person.
Examples
顺着这条路一直走，就能看到地铁站。
Shùnzhe zhè tiáo lù yìzhí zǒu, jiù néng kàndào dìtiě zhàn.Follow this road straight on and you'll see the metro station.
雨水顺着我的头发滴了下来。
Yǔshuǐ shùnzhe wǒ de tóufa dī le xiàlai.Rainwater dripped down my hair.
我们顺着河往下游走，不久就看到了那座桥。
Wǒmen shùnzhe hé wǎng xiàyóu zǒu, bùjiǔ jiù kàndào le nà zuò qiáo.We followed the river downstream and soon saw the bridge.
我们就顺着这条路走，走到哪里算哪里。
Wǒmen jiù shùnzhe zhè tiáo lù zǒu, zǒudào nǎli suàn nǎli.We'll just follow this road and see how far we get.
老师没有直接反对，而是顺着学生的意思往下说。
Lǎoshī méiyǒu zhíjiē fǎnduì, érshì shùnzhe xuésheng de yìsi wǎng xià shuō.The teacher didn't object outright but went along with the student's line of thought.
调查人员顺着这条线索往下查，很快找到了那家公司。
Diàochá rényuán shùnzhe zhè tiáo xiànsuǒ wǎng xià chá, hěn kuài zhǎodào le nà jiā gōngsī.The investigators followed this lead and soon found the company.
Common mistakes
✗ 顺着老师走。 → ✓ 跟着老师走。 (a person is followed with 跟着).
✗ 顺着我也买了一份。 → ✓ 顺便我也买了一份。 (“while I was at it” is 顺便, not 顺着).