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Adverbs

December 14, 2013 by Bret Tutor

Adverbs

English Adverbs
There are a few different uses for adverbs. The main use of an adverb is to modify or intensify a verb. They tell us more about the way a verb is being performed. For example when we say: Our dog runs fast. The word “fast” is an adverb that tells us how the dog runs. Adverbs can answer questions about the manner or how, the location, the time or to what degree an action occurred. Here are a some examples that illustrate the adverb in bold and the verb that it intensifies in italics:

  • The baby cried loudly. (How did the baby cry?)
  • She ate lunch after her meeting. (When did she eat lunch?)
  • She shopped locally whenever she was able. (Where did she shop?)

Adverbs can be used to modify adjectives, and also other adverbs. In the following examples the adverb is written in bold, and the adjective or adverb being intensified is in italics: Modifying an adjective examples:

  • She is incredibly intelligent. (What is the degree of her intelligence?)
  • Mary was frustratingly slow. (How slow was Mary?)

Examples that modify another adverb:

  • His hobbies are incredibly dangerous. (To what degree of danger are his hobbies?)
  • She left the party ridiculously early. (How early did she leave?)

Adverbs can be used in other ways as well. For example:

  • Adverbs can modify a whole sentence: Obviously, there are many grammar rules.
  • Adverbs can also modify a prepositional phrase: It’s time to go now.

Often we form adverbs by adding -ly to an adjective. For example:

  • simple (adjective) – simply (adverb)
  • obnoxious (adjective) – obnoxiously (adverb)
  • amazing (adjective) – amazingly (adverb)

This table illustrates some of the basic spelling rules for adverbs:

Adjective ending do this adjective adverb
most adjectives add – ly slow horrifying slowly horrifyingly
-able or -ible change -e to -y audible essential audibly essentially
-y change -y to -ily easy easily
-ic change -ic to -ically ironic ironically

But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. The words ugly, holy, daily and unlikely are all adjectives that are not used as adverbs. Some adverbs do not follow any sort of form. For example, the following are all adverbs: often, well, again, sometimes, never, still, always When we use an adverb to modify a verb there are three basic placements:

1. FRONT – before subject Soon I will finish this project.
2. MIDDLE – between subject + verb She never drives to work.
3. END – after verb/object I cook often.

Generally when an adverb is used to modify another adverb or an adjective, it is placed before the word it modifies. For example:

adverb adjective
I have a really messy car
adverb adverb
I almost never eat sweets.

The kind of adverb being used can affect the position we use for it. The following table gives you some guidelines for placement based on the kind of adverb. Warning: These only some of the guidelines we use. There are exceptions to these adverb placement rules as well:

kind of adverb mainly modifies sentence adverb usual position
manner (how) verbs I released the valve carefully. END
place verbs I was sleeping there. END
time definite verbs We will arrive soon. END
frequency I rarely drive. MIDDLE
degree verbs, adjectives and adverbs She was an absolute riot. MIDDLE
She was incredibly hilarious. before adjective
I am moderately slow. before adjective

ESL Video For For Adverbs

[slickquiz id=20]

Filed Under: Adverbs Tagged With: Adverbs, Grammar

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