Adverbs

Adverbs are an important part of speech. They usually answer questions such as how?,
where?, when?, how often? and how much?

What is an Adverb?
An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb
(The man ran quickly). In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the verb
that it modifies is in italics.

 John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)

 Afterwards she smoked a cigarette. (When did she smoke?)
 Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)

But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs
(It works very well). Look at these examples:

 Modify an adjective:
- He is really handsome. (How handsome is he?)
- That was extremely kind of you.

 Modify another adverb:

- She drives incredibly slowly. (How slowly does she drive?)
- He drives extremely fast.

Note that adverbs have other functions, too. They can:

 Modify a whole sentence: Obviously, I can't know everything.

 Modify a prepositional phrase: It's immediately inside the door.

Adverb Form
We make many adverbs by adding -ly to an adjective, for example:

 quick (adjective) > quickly (adverb)

 careful (adjective) > carefully (adverb)
 beautiful (adjective) > beautifully (adverb)

There are some basic rules about spelling for -ly adverbs. See the table below:

Adjective ending do this adjective adverb

quick quickly
nice nicely
most adjectives add -ly
sole solely
careful carefully

-able or -ible change -e to -y regrettable regrettably

 horrible horribly

-y change -y to -ily happy happily

-ic change -ic to -ically economic economically

But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. The words friendly, lovely, lonely and
neighbourly, for example, are all adjectives.

And some adverbs have no particular form. Look at these examples:

 well, fast, very, never, always, often, still

Kinds of Adverbs
Here you can see the basic kinds of adverbs.

Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of Manner tell us the manner or way in which something happens. They
answer the question "how?". Adverbs of Manner mainly modify verbs.

 He speaks slowly. (How does he speak?)

 They helped us cheerfully. (How did they help us?)
 James Bond drives his cars fast. (How does James Bond drive his cars?)

We normally use Adverbs of Manner with dynamic (action) verbs, not with stative or state
verbs.

 He ran fast. She came quickly. They worked happily.

 She looked beautifully. It seems strangely. They are happily.

Adverbs of Place

Adverbs of Place tell us the place where something happens. They answer the question
"where?". Adverbs of Place mainly modify verbs.

 Please sit here. (Where should I sit?)

 They looked everywhere. (Where did they look?)
 Two cars were parked outside. (Where were two cars parked?)

Adverbs of Time

Adverbs of Time tell us something about the time that something happens. Adverbs of
Time mainly modify verbs.

They can answer the question "when?":

 He came yesterday. (When did he come?)

 I want it now. (When do I want it?)
Or they can answer the question "how often?":

 They deliver the newspaper daily. (How often do they deliver the newspaper?)
 We sometimes watch a movie. (How often do we watch a movie?)

Adverbs of Degree

Adverbs of Degree tell us the degree or extent to which something happens. They
answer the question "how much?" or "to what degree?". Adverbs of Degree can modify
verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

 She entirely agrees with him. (How much does she agree with him?)
 Mary is very beautiful. (To what degree is Mary beautiful? How beautiful is Mary?)
 He drove quite dangerously. (To what degree did he drive dangerously? How
dangerously did he drive?)

Adverb Position
When an adverb modifies a verb, there are usually 3 possible positions within the
sentence or clause:

1. FRONT - before subject Now I will read a book.

2. MID - between subject + verb I often read books.

3. END - after verb/object I read books carefully.

When an adverb modifies an adjective or another adverb, it usually goes in front of the
word that it modifies, for example:

adverb adjective

She gave him a really dirty look.

adverb adverb

We quite often study English.

The position of an adverb often depends on the kind of adverb (manner, place, time,
degree). The following table gives you some guidelines for placement based on the kind
of adverb.
Warning: these are guidelines only, and not complete. There are many exceptions.

sentence
mainly
kind of adverb usual position
modifies
adverb

manner verbs She stroked his hair gently. END

place verbs He was working here. END

definite He finished the job yesterday. END

time verbs
frequency We often go to Paris. MID

I nearly died. MID

verbs,
adjectives
degree It was terribly funny. before adjective
and
adverbs
He works really fast. before adverb

Adverbs of Frequency
Adverbs of Frequency are Adverbs of Time that answer the question "How frequently?"
or "How often?". They tell us how often something happens. Here are some examples:

a. daily, weekly, yearly

b. often, sometimes, rarely

You probably see a difference between a) and b) above. With words like daily we know
exactly how often. The words in a) describe definite frequency. On the other hand,
words like often give us an idea about frequency but they don't tell us exactly. The
words in b) describe indefinite frequency.

We separate them into two groups because they normally go in different positions in the
sentence.

Adverbs of definite frequency

Examples:

 hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly

 every second, once a minute, twice a year
  once, twice, once or twice, three times

Adverbs of definite frequency, like all adverbs of definite time, typically go in END
position. Look at these examples:

 Most companies pay taxes yearly.

 The manager checks the toilets every hour.
 The directors meet weekly to review progress.

Sometimes, usually for reasons of emphasis or style, some adverbs of definite frequency
may go at the FRONT, for example:

 Every day, more than five thousand people die on our roads.

Adverbs of indefinite frequency

Examples:

 never, seldom, sometimes, often, always

100% always, constantly

usually, normally
frequently, regularly
often
Adverbs of indefinite frequency mainly go in MID
position in the sentence. They go before the main verb 50% sometimes
(except the main verb "to be"):
occasionally
 We usually go shopping on Saturday. rarely, infrequently
 I have often done that.
 She is always late. seldom
hardly ever
Occasionally, sometimes, often, frequently and usually
can also go at the beginning or end of a sentence: 0% never

 Sometimes they come and stay with us.

 I play tennis occasionally.

Rarely and seldom can also go at the end of a sentence (often with "very"):

 We see them rarely.

 John eats meat very seldom.

Adverbs of Manner List

Alphabetical list of common single-word manner adverbs

Adverbs of manner form the largest group of adverbs. We make most of them simply by
adding -ly to their corresponding adjective. This is an alphabetical list of 130 common
 single-word adverbs of manner. Adverbs of manner that do not end in -ly are shown in
bold.

accidentally elegantly hurriedly promptly softly

angrily enormously inadequately punctually solemnly
anxiously enthusiastically ingeniously quickly speedily
awkwardly equally innocently quietly stealthily
badly eventually inquisitively rapidly sternly
beautifully exactly irritably rarely straight
blindly faithfully joyously really stupidly
boldly fast justly recklessly successfully
bravely fatally kindly regularly suddenly
brightly fiercely lazily reluctantly suspiciously
busily fondly loosely repeatedly swiftly
calmly foolishly loudly rightfully tenderly
carefully fortunately madly roughly tensely
carelessly frankly mortally rudely thoughtfully
cautiously frantically mysteriously sadly tightly
cheerfully generously neatly safely truthfully
clearly gently nervously selfishly unexpectedly
closely gladly noisily sensibly victoriously
correctly gracefully obediently seriously violently
courageously greedily openly sharply vivaciously
cruelly happily painfully shyly warmly
daringly hard patiently silently weakly
deliberately hastily perfectly sleepily wearily
doubtfully healthily politely slowly well
eagerly honestly poorly smoothly wildly
easily hungrily powerfully so wisely

Adverbs of Place List

Alphabetical list of common single-word place adverbs
about behind in outside
above below indoors over
abroad down inside there
anywhere downstairs near towards
away east (etc) nearby under
back elsewhere off up
backwards (also far on upstairs
backward) here out where

Common suffixes
 -wards or -ward (backwards, downwards, eastward, forwards, homewards, upwards)
 -where (anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere)

Note that some adverbs can also be prepositions.

 She was waiting with a red scarf on. (adverb)
 She put the red scarf on the table. (preposition)
 Adverbs of Time List
List of common single-word time adverbs

points of time (definite):

 now  today  tonight

 then  tomorrow  yesterday
frequency (definite):

 annually  hourly  quarterly

 daily  monthly  weekly
 fortnightly  nightly  yearly
The word "bimonthly" is ambiguous and best avoided. Bimonthly can mean "twice a month"
or "every two months". The same is true of "biyearly"/"biannually".

frequency (indefinite):

 always  never  seldom

 constantly  normally  sometimes
 ever  occasionally  regularly
 frequently  often  usually
 generally  rarely
 infrequently  regularly
relationships in time (indefinite):

 already  finally  late  recently

 before  first  later  since
 early  formerly  lately  soon
 earlier  just  next  still
 eventually  last  previously  yet

Adverbs of Degree List

Alphabetical list of common single-word degree adverbs
almost extremely just pretty* thoroughly
absolutely fairly least purely too
awfully* far less quite totally
badly* fully little rather utterly
barely greatly lots really very
completely hardly most scarcely virtually
decidedly highly much simply well
deeply how nearly so
enough incredibly perfectly somewhat
enormously indeed positively strongly
entirely intensely practically terribly*
*informal