Know about adverbs
You already know that a word that adds something to the meaning of a verb is called Adverb, An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb also.
Kinds of Adverbs:
Based on the way adverbs modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb, they are of
the following kinds:
1. Adverb of Manner.
2. Adverb of Time.
3. Adverbs of Place.
4. Adverb of Frequency.
5. Adverb of Degree.
6. Interrogative Adverb.
7. Relative Adverb.
8. Sentence Adverb
1. Adverb of Manner:
It is used to explain the manner in which an action takes place. It answers the question “how”.
For example;
1. It rained heavily last night. (How-heavily
2 She pronounced the word incorrectly. (How-incorrectly)
3. Rohit come out of the house hastily. (How-hastily)
4. Mother decorated the house beautifully. (How-beautifully)
5. I Willingly give away my coat to the poor. (How-willingly)
Other examples of adverb of manner are fast, boldly, bravely, quickly, gladly, honestly.
2. Adverb of Time
It is used to explain the time in which the action happens. It answers the question ‘when’. For examples;
1. I have not come here before. (When-before)
2. The chief guest arrived late. (When – late)
3. Today I came to know that they have moved out of the city. (When-today)
4. Earlier, here lived a king and his queen. (When-earlier)
5. 1 shall complete this work soon. (When-soon)
Other examples of adverb of time are go, since yesterday, now, then, once,.
3. Adverb of Place:
It is used to explain the venue or place where the action takes place. It answer question, “where“.
For example:
1. He has gone out. (Where-out)
2. Don’t stand here. (Where – here)
3. Go there. (Where – there)
4. Children are playing downstairs. (Where-downstairs)
Other examples of adverbs of time are nowhere, away, near, far, anywhere, in, up, down,
above, below, beside.
4. Adverb of Frequency:
It is used to explain the interval at which the action takes place. It answers the question,
‘how often‘.
For example;
1. He hardly speaks in a rude way. (How often-hardly)
2. Barking dogs seldom bite. (How often – seldom)
3. Sometimes I spend my weekend with my aunt. (How often-sometimes)
4. It usually rains heavily in the month of August. (How often-usually)
5. Always speak the truth. (How often always)
Other examples of adverbs of frequency are never, rarely,often, usually, daily, normally.
5. Adverb of Degree:
It is used to explain the degree or intensity to which an action takes place. It answers the
question, ‘how much‘.
For example;
1. I fully agree with you. (How-fully)
2. She was extremely sorry for coming late. (How-extremely)
3. At times you are too busy. (How-too)
4. The clothes are partly wet. (How-partly)
Other examples of adverbs of degree are very, enough, entirely, barely, only, really.
6. Interrogative Adverb:
It is a question-word which is used to ask the questions related to an action.
For example;
1. Where is Tommy, our pet dog?
2. Why are you crying?
3. How did you reach there?
4. When did he give last call?
5. Why is the date of examination postponed?
Other examples of interrogative adverbs are how much, how many, how long.
7. Relative Adverb:
It is an adverb that acts as a connective to join sentences together or it joins two clauses together. Relative Adverbs are in fact adverbs of time, place, manner, frequency degree or cause etc. but they act as connectives. So, they are called relative adverbs.
For example;
1. I do not know when he will return. (time)
2. Can you tell where he lives! (place)
3. Do you know how to ride a bike? (manner)
4. I know how often you have insulted me. (frequency)
5. Tell me how far she is honest. (degree)
6. Tell me why he has gone. (cause)
Like relative pronoun, these adverbs refer back to their antecedents.
8. Sentence Adverb:
It Is used to modify the whole sentence.
For example;
1. Obviously, it is too dangerous.
2. Perhaps, he will help us.
Other examples of sentence adverbs are evidently, fortunately, luckily, obviously,
certainly, clearly, surely.
Adverbial:
Sometimes, a group of words work as an adverb in a sentence. This group of words called the Adverbial. Some adverbials and their corresponding adverbs are listed below:
| Adverbial | One-word adverb |
| at the same time | simultaneously |
| in an easy manner | freely |
| without any effort | effortlessly |
| with a lot care | carefully |
| without a break |
continuously
|
| contrary to expectation | unexpectedly |
| at regular intervals | regularly |
| with full agreement | willingly |
| with great love | affectionately |
| once in a while | occasionally |
Position of Adverbs:
Normally adverb of manner used before an adjective or other adverb in a sentence.
For example;
1. It is a reasonably economical restaurant and food served there is extremely good.
2. I am terribly sorry. I didn’t mean to push you.
In Sentence 1. ‘reasonably‘ and ‘extremely‘ are adverbs used before adjectives ‘economical‘ and ‘extremely‘ respectively.
In Sentence 2, ‘terribly‘ used before another adverb ‘sorry‘.
Note: All words ending in –ly are not adverbs. Some adjectives end in -ly too.
For example: Friendly, lively, elderly, lonely, lovely, etc.
The adverb ‘so‘ is used before an adjective or an adverb in a sentence to make the
meaning of the adjective or the adverb stronger in a sentence.
For Example;
1. The movie was so good that I couldn’t stop my sister from watching it.
2. He speaks so quickly that sometime, it becomes difficult to understand.
In sentence 1. the adverb ‘so’ is used before the adjective ‘good‘.
In sentence 2, the adverb ‘so‘ is used before another adverb ‘quickly‘.
Adverb of time: It can be used either after the main verb and the object of the sentence or before the subject at the beginning of the sentence. But in that case, it should be followed by a comma (,).
For examples;
1. She called me yesterday.
2. Yesterday, she called me
In Sentence 1, ‘yesterday‘ is the adverb of time which has come after the main verb ‘called‘ and the object ‘me‘.
In Sentence 2, ‘yesterday‘ is the adverb of time, which has came at the beginning of the
sentence followed by a comma(,).
Note: In case a sentence has more than one adverb or all three adverbs, i.e adverb of manner, adverb of place and adverb of time they take the position a given in the following sentence structure:
Subject + Main verb + Adverbs of manner+ Advert place + Adverb of time.
Example:
They worked hard in the field the whole day.
Here, ‘hard‘ is the adverb of manner, ‘field‘ is the adverb place and ‘whole day‘ is the adverb of time.
Adverb of degree is used before an adjective or an adverb but after the main verb in a
sentence.
For example:
1. The questions are very difficult.
2. I did the homework almost complete by the end of the day.
In Sentence 1, the adverb of degree ‘very‘ has come before the adjective ‘difficult‘ but after the verb ‘are’.
In Sentence 2, the adverb of degree ‘almost‘ has come before the adverb ‘complete‘
after the verb ‘did‘.
Adverb of frequency generally comes before the main verb.
For example;
1. He usually comes to my home in the evening.
2. Sometimes it rains hard in the month of July’
3. They often disturb me in my work.
4. He rarely comes in our colony.
Adverbs like ‘already’, ‘just’ and ‘still‘ come in between the main verb and auxiliary verb.
For example;
1. The bus already arrived.
2. The teacher has just come in the classroom
3. I am still waiting for his reply.
The adverb ‘yet‘ comes at the end of the sentence after the main verb and object.
For example;
1. He has not replied to my letters yet.
2. The rain has not stopped yet.
Formation of Adverbs
By adding ‘-ly‘ to adjectives:
| Adjective | Adverb |
| able | ably |
| angry | angrily |
| bad | badly |
| careless | carelessly |
2. By adding ‘-ly’ to nouns:
| Noun | Adverb |
| day | daily |
| month | monthly |
| year | yearly |
| week | weekly |
3. By adding ‘-ly’ to participles:
| Participles | Adverb |
| amazing | amazingly |
| exceeding | exceedingly |
| fixed | fixedly |
4. By prefixing ‘a’ to nouns:
| Noun | Adverb |
| blaze | ablaze |
| board | aboard |
| head | ahead |
| gain | again |
5. By prefixing ‘a’ to adjectives:
| Adjective | Adverb |
| broad | abroad |
| far | afar |
| loud | aloud |
| long | along |
6. By prefixing ‘a’ to verb:
| go | ago |
| cross | across |
7. By prefixing ‘be’ or ‘ab’ to certain words:
| fore | before |
| hind | behind |
| low | below |
| out | about |
| normal | abnormal |
Comparison of Adverbs:
Adjectives and adverbs are qualifying words. As adjectives have three degrees of comparison, so do the adverbs. The basic degree is the Positive Degree from which
Comparative and Superlative degrees are formed.
Let’s observe some examples :
- Single syllable adverb, add ‘er’ and ‘est‘ to form their comparative and superlative degree.
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| fast | faster | fastest |
| hard | harder | hardest |
| high | higher | highest |
| near | nearer | nearest |
- Adverbs ending in ‘-ly‘ add more and most to form their comparative and superlative degrees:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| carefully | more carefully | most carefully |
| gladly | more gladly | most gladly |
| slowly | more slowly | most slowly |
| loudly | more loudly | most loudly |
- Irregular formation of the degrees of comparison:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| far | farther | farthest |
| ill | worse | worst |
| little | less | least |
| much | more | most |
Keep in mind:
- A word that adds something more to the meaning of a verb is called an Adverb.An adverb can modify an adjective or another adverb also.
- Based on the way adverbs modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb, they are of the following kinds: Adverb of Manner, Adverb of Time, Adverb of Place,Adverbs of Frequency, Adverbs of Degree, Interrogative Adverbs, Relative Adverbs and Sentence Adverbs.
- Sometimes a group of words work as an adverb in a sentence. This group of words is called the Adverbial.