What Is an Adverb?

Identification and
Use
An adverb is a part of speech that provides greater description to a verb,
adjective or another adverb. Some adverbs can also modify a phrase, a clause or
a whole sentence. While most adverbs are easy to spot because they end in -ly,
others are a bit trickier to find. Learn more about adverbs and how they're used
in different sentences.
Examples:

 My very patient mother walks slowly. ("very" modifies "patient")

 The somewhat quiet boy plays happily with trucks. ("somewhat" modifies
"quiet")
 The cute dog runs very quickly. ("very" modifies "quickly")
 My patient mother walks so slowly. ("so" modifies "slowly")
 The quiet boy plays rather happily in the corner. ("rather" modifies
"happily")
Types of Adverbs
Here are five main kinds of adverbs, each answering a different question. They

include:

 adverbs of manner (how something happens) - angrily, hungrily, beautifully

 adverbs of time (when does something happen) - yesterday, tomorrow,

next week

 adverbs of place (where something happens) - here, there, nowhere

 adverbs of degree (how much does something happen) - almost, so, very

 adverbs of frequency (how often something happens) - always, never, often

 Finding Adverbs in a Sentence
An adverb is often one of the more descriptive words in a sentence. Once you find the adverb, you
can determine what question the adverb is answering. For example:

 The dog messily ate his dinner. (How did the dog eat his dinner?)
 We go bowling quite often. (How often do you go bowling?)
 I hurriedly handed in my test. (How did you hand in your test?)
 Let's eat dinner outside. (Where should we eat dinner?)
 My roommate is so annoying. (How annoying is he?)
 Marcia finished the project last night. (When did she finish it?)
 She reluctantly washed the dishes. (How did she wash the dishes?)
 This car is incredibly expensive. (How expensive is it?)
Notice that you can remove all of these adverbs without affecting the meaning of the sentences. For
example, "The dog ate his dinner" still makes sense. However, adding the adverb "messily" to make
"The dog messily ate his dinner" provides the reader with a more vivid picture.
The Position of Adverbs in a Sentence
You'll find adverbs in three different places in a sentence or clause, depending
on which type of adverb they are. Adverb positions include:

 initial position (Unfortunately, we were too late.)

 middle position (We were unfortunately too late.)
 end position (We were too late, unfortunately.)

Most adverbs are in the end position of a phrase, clause or sentence, as they
follow the words that they modify. Sentence adverbs, conjunctive adverbs and
time adverbs often appear in the initial position, while adverbs meant to focus on
an action appear in the middle of the sentence.
 Common Errors with Adverbs and Adjectives
Since adverbs and adjectives both modify other words, people often mistakenly use an
adjective when they should use an adverb and vice versa. For example:

 incorrect - He behaved very bad on the field trip.

 correct - He behaved very badly on the field trip.

The first sentence is incorrect because "bad" is an adjective being used to describe
"behaved," which is a verb. Changing "bad" to the adverb "badly" correctly describes the
verb. However, this is not always the case:

 incorrect - I feel badly about canceling our date.

 correct - I feel bad about canceling our date.
Linking verbs such as "feel" are followed by adjectives, not adverbs. That's because
linking verbs aren't technically showing the action of the sentence; they're simply linking
the subject of the sentence ("I") to the subject complement ("bad").
Another common adverb vs. adjective error occurs with the words good and well, as
"good" is an adjective ("You're good at painting" — "good" modifies "you") but "well" is
an adverb ("You paint really well" — "well" modifies "paint"). Once you get the hang of
these differences, you'll rarely make these types of errors.