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?

adverb (noun): a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb, expressing manner, place, time or degree; a word that can modify a phrase, clause or sentence

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
most adjectives	add -ly	quick nice sole careful	quickly nicely solely carefully
-able or -ible	change -e to -y	regrettable horrible	regrettably 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 following -ly words, for example, are all adjectives:

• friendly, lovely, lonely, neighbourly

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

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

Note that the form of an adverb can also change to make it comparative or superlative.

• 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?" (frequency):

• 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

Adverbs with verbs

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.

Adverbs with adjectives/adverbs

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.

Kind of adverb can influence position

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.

kind of adverb		mainly modifies	sentence			usual position
				adverb
manner		verbs	She spoke	gently.		END
place		verbs	He lived	here.		END
time	definite	verbs	I'll do it	today.		END
	frequency		We	often	go to Paris.	MID
degree		verbs, adj. and adv.	I	nearly	died.	MID
			It was	terribly	funny.	before adj.
			He works	really	fast.	before adv.
Warning: these are guidelines only, and not complete. There are many exceptions.

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:

1. daily, weekly, yearly
2. 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

Look at these examples of adverbs of indefinite frequency:

100%		always, constantly
		usually, normally
		frequently, regularly
		often
50%		sometimes
		occasionally
		rarely, infrequently
		seldom
		hardly ever
0%		never

Adverbs of indefinite frequency mainly go in MID position in the sentence. They go before the main verb (except the main verb "to be"):

• We usually go shopping on Saturday.
• I have often done that.
• She is always late.

Occasionally, sometimes, often, frequently and usually can also go at the beginning or end of a sentence:

• 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.

• Comparative Adverbs

One of the jobs of an adverb is to modify a verb action, for example:

• Joe ran fast.

If we want to compare one verb action with another, we can use a comparative adverb, for example:

• Joe ran fast, but Mary came first because she ran faster.

We use comparative adverbs when talking about two actions (not three or more actions). Comparison is always between TWO things.

How do we Make Comparative Adverbs?

There are three basic ways to make or "form" a comparative adverb:

1. One-syllable adverbs: add -er

If an adverb has only one syllable, we usually just add -er to make it comparative: fast → faster. Here are some examples:

adverb	comparative adverb
fast	faster
hard	harder
high	higher
late	later
long	longer
low	lower
wide	wider

Note that most one-syllable adverbs have the same form as their equivalent adjectives. Don't let this confuse you. For example:

	positive	comparative
adjective	a fast car	a faster car
adverb	he drives fast	he drives faster

2. Two-syllable adverbs: use more

When an adverb has two or more syllables (like all -ly adverbs), we can make it comparative by adding more in front: quickly → more quickly. Look at these examples:

adverb	comparative adverb
carefully	more carefully
efficiently	more efficiently
happily	more happily
horribly	more horribly
often	more often
quickly	more quickly
recently	more recently
slowly	more slowly
sadly	more sadly
strangely	more strangely

We can also use less in place of more to suggest a reduction in the action. Look at these examples:

sentence	for example
She visits often.	once a week
Now she visits more often. ↑	once a day
Now she visits less often. ↓	once a month

3. Irregular Adverbs

A few adverbs have irregular form, for example:

adverb	comparative adverb
badly	worse
early	earlier
far	further/farther
little	less
much	more
well	better

Comparative Adverbs with Informal Forms

Note that a few adverbs have a formal ("correct") form with -ly and an informal form without -ly. The same is then true of their comparative forms. Although you may hear some native speakers using the informal form in speech, it is best avoided in formal situations and examinations. The most common examples are:

adverb	comparative adverb
cheap/cheaply	cheaper/more cheaply
loud/loudly	louder/more loudly
quick/quickly	quicker/more quickly
slow/slowly	slower/more slowly

Note that a few adverbs have NO comparative form, for example:
again, first
daily, yesterday
here, there
now, then
never, sometimes

How do we Use Comparative Adverbs?

Now that you know how to make comparative adverbs, let's see how to use them. Look at these examples. Notice that we may use more to suggest an increase in the action and less to suggest a decrease in the action. Notice also that the comparative adverb is often followed by than:

• Trains go fast but planes go faster.
• Planes go faster than trains.
• Trains don't go faster than planes.
• Trains go more slowly than planes.
• Planes go less slowly than trains.
• Joe won because he played better than Jane played.
• Joe won because he played better than Jane.
• Joe won because he played better.
• Did cities grow more quickly after the Industrial Revolution?
• He hit the ball more powerfully than his competitor.
• As we get older we remember things less easily.
• Could you talk a bit more quietly please?
• Could you talk a bit less loudly please?
• I can't hear you. Please speak louder/more loudly.

Although we use comparative adverbs when talking about two actions, in fact one or both of the actions may be a group of actions.

• The planet Mercury revolves around the sun faster than all the other planets.

Here, we are talking about eight planets, but we are still comparing one action (Mercury's) to one other action (that of all the other planets).

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverbs.htm
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverb-what.htm
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverb-form.htm
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverbs-kinds.htm
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverb-position.htm
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverbs-frequency.htm
https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverbs-comparative.php