Types of Adverbs:
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, adding details about how, when, where, or to what extent an action is performed. Common categories include:
- Adverbs of Affirmation/Negation (e.g., certainly, never) express confirmation or denial.
- Adverbs of Manner (e.g., quickly, happily) explain how something is done.
- Adverbs of Time (e.g., yesterday, later) describe when an action occurs.
- Adverbs of Place (e.g., here, there) tell where an action takes place.
- Adverbs of Frequency (e.g., always, rarely) show how often something happens.
- Adverbs of Degree (e.g., very, extremely) indicate the intensity of an action.
- Conjunctive Adverbs (e.g., therefore, however) connect two independent clauses.
Placement of Adverbs:
The placement of adverbs can vary based on what they modify:
- Manner, place, and time adverbs often come at the end of a sentence (e.g., “He walked slowly“).
- Adverbs of frequency usually come before the main verb but after the verb “to be” (e.g., “She always sings,” “They are often late”).
- Adverbs modifying adjectives or other adverbs often appear directly before the word they modify (e.g., “She is very tired”).
Formation of Adverbs
Many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective (e.g., quick becomes quickly). However, not all adverbs end in -ly (e.g., well, fast, early), and some adjectives with -ly (e.g., friendly) are not adverbs.
- Most adverbs are formed by adding -ly to the adjective.
- loud = loudly
- careless = carlessly
- safe = safely
- Adjectives that end in consonant + y change the “y” to “i” and add -ly for the adverb form.
- lazy = lazily
- crazy = crazily
- angry = angrily
- Adjectives that end in -ic add -ally for the adverb form.
- pessimistic = pessimistically
- optimistic = optimistically
- enthusiastic = enthusiastically
Irregular Adverbs
- These irregular adverbs have the same form as adjectives and adverbs.
| adjective | adverb |
| fast | fast |
| hard | hard |
| early | early |
| late | late |
- The adjective form for “good” is “well”, but sometimes “well” can be used as an adjective that means “healthy.”
Example: John had the flu last week, but today he is well (healthy).
- The word “not” and words that tell time and place are also adverbs.
- today
- soon
- there
- not
- here
- tomorrow
- early
Adverbs in Negative Sentences:
In negative statements, adverbs like never and rarely are placed before the main verb (e.g., “He never works late”). In questions, adverbs such as often or usually generally follow the subject (e.g., “Do you often visit your parents?”).
Adverbs of frequency in negative sentences:
- He never goes to the gym. (Adverb: never)
- They rarely eat out these days. (Adverb: rarely)
- She doesn’t often drive to work. (Adverb: often)
Adverbs of manner in negative sentences:
- She didn’t speak clearly during the presentation. (Adverb: clearly)
- They couldn’t work efficiently because of the noise. (Adverb: efficiently)
- He never performs badly under pressure. (Adverb: badly)
Adverbs of time in negative sentences:
- I haven’t seen her lately. (Adverb: lately)
- He didn’t arrive early today. (Adverb: early)
- We’re not going tomorrow. (Adverb: tomorrow)
Adverbs in Questions:
Interrogative adverbs (where, when, how, why) are used to ask questions about place, time, manner, or reason. They generally come at the beginning of the question (e.g., “Why are you late?”).
Adverbs of frequency in questions:
- Do you always bring your own lunch? (Adverb: always)
- How often do you travel for work? (Adverb: often)
- Have you ever visited Paris? (Adverb: ever)
Adverbs of manner in questions:
- How did you solve that problem so quickly? (Adverb: quickly)
- Did she sing well during the audition? (Adverb: well)
- Can he explain it clearly? (Adverb: clearly)
Adverbs of time in questions:
- When did they leave the party? (Adverb: when)
- What time will we meet tomorrow? (Adverb: tomorrow)
- Has he called recently? (Adverb: recently)