Grammar : All about Adverbs

ADVERBS - FUNCTION

Adverbs modify, or tell us more about other words, usually verbs:

Examples

·         The bus moved slowly.

·         The bears ate greedily.

Sometimes they tell us more about adjectives:

Examples

·         You look absolutely fabulous!

They can also modify other adverbs:

Examples

·         She played the violin extremely well.

·         You're speaking too quietly.

ADVERBS: How adverbs are formed

Rules

1. In most cases, an adverb is formed by adding '-ly' to an adjective:

Adjective	Adverb
cheap quick slow	cheaply quickly slowly

Examples:

·         Time goes quickly.

·         He walked slowly to the door.

·         She certainly had an interesting life.

·         He carefully picked up the sleeping child.

Rules

If the adjective ends in '-y', replace the 'y' with 'i' and add '-ly':

Adjective	Adverb
easy angry happy lucky	easily angrily happily luckily

If the adjective ends in -'able', '-ible', or '-le', replace the '-e' with '-y':

Adjective	Adverb
probable terrible gentle	probably terribly gently

If the adjective ends in '-ic', add '-ally':

Adjective	Adverb
basic economic tragic	basically economically tragically

Note: Exception: public - publicly

2. Some adverbs have the same form as the adjective:

Adjective and Adverb
early fast hard high	late near straight wrong

Compare:

·         It is a fast car.

·         He drives very fast.

·         This is a hard exercise.

·         He works hard.

·         We saw many high buildings.

·         The bird flew high in the sky.

3. 'Well' and 'good'

'Well' is the adverb that corresponds to the adjective 'good'.

Examples:

·         He is a good student.

·         He studies well.

·         She is a good pianist.

·         She plays the piano well.

·         They are good swimmers.

·         They swim well.

Adverbs: Comparative & Superlative

Rule

In general, comparative and superlative forms of adverbs are the same as for adjectives:

·         add -er or -est to short adverbs:

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
hard late fast	harder later faster	the hardest the latest the fastest

Example:

·         Jim works harder than his brother.

·         Everyone in the race ran fast, but John ran the fastest of all.

Rule

With adverbs ending in -ly, use more for the comparative and most for the superlative:

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
quietly slowly seriously	more quietly more slowly more seriously	most quietly most slowly most seriously

Example:

·         The teacher spoke more slowly to help us to understand.

·         Could you sing more quietly please?

Rule

Some adverbs have irregular comparative forms:

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
badly far little well	worse farther/further less better	worst farthest/furthest least best

Example:

·         The little boy ran further than his friends.

·         You're driving worse today than yesterday !

BE CAREFUL! Sometimes 'most' can mean 'very':

·         We were most grateful for your help

·         I am most impressed by this application.

KINDS OF ADVERBS

There are several classes or 'kinds' of adverbs that we use for specific functions:

1.       Adverbs of manner

2.       Adverbs of place

3.       Adverbs of time

4.       Adverbs of certainty

5.       Adverbs of degree

6.       Interrogative adverbs

7.       Relative adverbs

8.       Viewpoint and commenting adverbs

ADVERBS OF MANNER

Rule

Adverbs of manner tell us how something happens. They are usually placed after the main verb or after the object.

Examples:

·         He swims well, (after the main verb)

·         He ran... rapidly, slowly, quickly..

·         She spoke... softly, loudly, aggressively..

·         James coughed loudly to attract her attention.

·         He plays the flute beautifully. (after the object)

·         He ate the chocolate cake greedily.

BE CAREFUL!

The adverb should not be put between the verb and the object:

Examples

·         He ate greedily the chocolate cake [incorrect]

·         He ate the chocolate cake greedily [correct]

Rule

If there is a preposition before the object, e.g. at, towards, we can place the adverb either before the preposition or after the object.

Examples

·         The child ran happily towards his mother.

·         The child ran towards his mother happily.

Rule

Sometimes an adverb of manner is placed before a verb + object to add emphasis:

Examples

·         He gently woke the sleeping woman.

Some writers put an adverb of manner at the beginning of the sentence to catch our attention and make us curious:

Examples

·         Slowly she picked up the knife.

Rule

(We want to know what happened slowly, who did it slowly, why they did it slowly)

However, adverbs should always come AFTER intransitive verbs (=verbs which have no object).

Examples

·         The town grew quickly

·         He waited patiently

Also, these common adverbs are almost always placed AFTER the verb:

·         well

·         badly

·         hard

·         fast

Rule

The position of the adverb is important when there is more than one verb in a sentence. If the adverb is placed after a clause, then it modifies the whole action described by the clause.

Notice the difference in meaning between the following pairs of sentences:

·         She quickly agreed to re-type the letter (= her agreement was quick)

·         She agreed to re-type the letter quickly (= the re-typing was quick)

·         He quietly asked me to leave the house (= his request was quiet)

·         He asked me to leave the house quietly (= the leaving was quiet)

ADVERBS OF PLACE

Rule

Adverbs of place tell us where something happens.
They are usually placed after the main verb or after the object:

Examples:

after the main verb:

·         I looked everywhere

·         John looked away, up, down, around...

·         I'm going home, out, back

·         Come in

after the object:

·         They built a house nearby

·         She took the child outside

Common Adverbs of Place

'Here' and 'there'

With verbs of movement, here means towards or with the speaker:

·         Come here (= towards me)

·         It's in here (= come with me to see it)

There means away from, or not with the speaker:

·         Put it there (= away from me)

·         It's in there (= go by yourself to see it)

Here and there are combined with prepositions to make many common adverbial phrases:

down here, down there;
over here, over there;
under here, under there;
up here, up there

Here and there are placed at the beginning of the sentence in exclamations or when emphasis is needed.

They are followed by the verb if the subject is a noun:

·         Here comes the bus. (followed by the verb)

Or by a pronoun if this is the subject (it, she, he etc.):

·         Here it is! (followed by the pronoun)

·         There she goes! (followed by the pronoun)

NOTE: most common adverbs of place also function as prepositions.

Examples:

about, across, along, around, behind, by, down, in, off, on, over, round, through, under, up.

Go to Prepositions or Phrasal Verbs

Other adverbs of place: ending in '-wards', expressing movement in a particular direction:

backwards forwards downwards upwards inwards outwards

northwards southwards eastwards westwards homewards onwards

Examples:

·         Cats don't usually walk backwards.

·         The ship sailed westwards.

BE CAREFUL! 'Towards' is a preposition, not an adverb, so it is always followed by a nounor a pronoun:

·         He walked towards the car.

·         She ran towards me.

expressing both movement and location:

ahead, abroad, overseas, uphill, downhill, sideways, indoors, outdoors

Examples:

·         The child went indoors.

·         He lived and worked abroad.

ADVERBS OF TIME

Adverbs of Time

Adverbs of time tell us when an action happened, but also for how long, and how often.

Examples

·         When: today, yesterday, later, now, last year

·         For how long: all day, not long, for a while, since last year

·         How often: sometimes, frequently, never, often, yearly

"When" adverbs are usually placed at the end of the sentence:

Examples

·         Goldilocks went to the Bears' house yesterday.

·         I'm going to tidy my room tomorrow.

This is a "neutral" position, but some "when" adverbs can be put in other positions to give a different emphasis

Compare:

·         Later Goldilocks ate some porridge. (the time is more important)

·         Goldilocks later ate some porridge. (this is more formal, like a policeman's report)

·         Goldilocks ate some porridge later. (this is neutral, no particular emphasis)

"For how long" adverbs are usually placed at the end of the sentence:

Examples

·         She stayed in the Bears' house all day.

·         My mother lived in France for a year.

Notice: 'for' is always followed by an expression of duration:

Examples

·         for three days,

·         for a week,

·         for several years,

·         for two centuries.

'since' is always followed by an expression of a point in time:

Examples

·         since Monday,

·         since 1997,

·         since the last war.

"How often" adverbs expressing the frequency of an action are usually placed before the main verb but after auxiliary verbs (such as be, have, may, must):

Examples

·         I often eat vegetarian food. (before the main verb)

·         He never drinks milk. (before the main verb)

·         You must always fasten your seat belt. (after the auxiliary must)

·         She is never sea-sick.(after the auxiliary is)

·         I have never forgotten my first kiss. (after the auxiliary have and before the main verb forgotten)

Some other "how often" adverbs express the exact number of times an action happens and are usually placed at the end of the sentence:

Examples

·         This magazine is published monthly.

·         He visits his mother once a week.

When a frequency adverb is placed at the end of a sentence it is much stronger.

Compare:

·         She regularly visits France.

·         She visits France regularly.

Adverbs that can be used in these two positions:

·         frequently,

·         generally,

·         normally,

·         occasionally,

·         often,

·         regularly,

·         sometimes,

·         usually

'Yet' and 'still'

Yet is used in questions and in negative sentences, and is placed at the end of the sentence or after not.

Examples

·         Have you finished your work yet? (= a simple request for information) No, not yet.(= simple negative answer)

·         They haven't met him yet. (= simple negative statement)

·         Haven't you finished yet? (= expressing slight surprise)

Still expresses continuity; it is used in positive sentences and questions, and is placedbefore the main verb and after auxiliary verbs (such as be, have, might, will)

Examples

·         I am still hungry.

·         She is still waiting for you

·         Are you still here?

·         Do you still work for the BBC?

ORDER OF ADVERBS OF TIME

If you need to use more than one adverb of time at the end of a sentence, use them in this order:

1: 'how long'
2: 'how often'
3: 'when' (think of 'low')

Example:

·         1 + 2 : I work (1) for five hours (2) every day

·         2 + 3 : The magazine was published (2) weekly (3) last year.

·         1 + 3 : I was abroad (1) for two months (3) last year.

·         1 + 2 + 3 : She worked in a hospital (1) for two days (2) every week (3) last year.

ADVERBS OF CERTAINTY

Adverbs of certainty express how certain or sure we feel about an action or event.

Usage

Common adverbs of certainty:

certainly, definitely, probably, undoubtedly, surely

1. Adverbs of certainty go before the main verb but after the verb 'to be':

·         He definitely left the house this morning.

·         He is probably in the park.

2. With other auxiliary verb, these adverbs go between the auxiliary and the main verb:

·         He has certainly forgotten the meeting.

·         He will probably remember tomorrow.

3. Sometimes these adverbs can be placed at the beginning of the sentence:

·         Undoubtedly, Winston Churchill was a great politician.

BE CAREFUL! with surely. When it is placed at the beginning of the sentence, it means the speaker thinks something is true, but is looking for confirmation:

·         Surely you've got a bicycle?

Adverbs: Viewpoint and Commenting

VIEWPOINT AND COMMENTING ADVERBS

There are some adverbs and adverbial expressions which tell us about the speaker's viewpoint or opinion about an action, or make some comment on the action.

Viewpoint

Frankly, I think he is a liar. (= this is my frank, honest opinion)
Theoretically, you should pay a fine. (= from a theoretical point of view but there may be another way of looking at the situation)

These adverbs are placed at the beginning of the sentence and are separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma.

Some common Viewpoint adverbs:

honestly, seriously, confidentially, personally, surprisingly, ideally, economically, officially, obviously, clearly, surely, undoubtedly.

Examples

·         Personally, I'd rather go by train.

·         Surprisingly, this car is cheaper than the smaller model.

·         Geographically, Britain is rather cut off from the rest of Europe.

Commenting

These are very similar to viewpoint adverbs, and often the same words, but they go in a different position - after the verb to be and before the main verb.

Examples

·         She is certainly the best person for the job.

·         You obviously enjoyed your meal.

Some common Commenting adverbs:

definitely, certainly, obviously, simply.