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?

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man ranquickly). 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 verywell). 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 words friendly, lovely, lonely and neighbourly, for example, are all adjectives.

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?":

• 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?)