Adverbs

- 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 |