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Adverbs are a part of speech that are used to modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They can be classified as adverbs of degree, place, time, frequency, and manner.
Essentially, adverbs are words that change the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. They tell the how, when, why, where, etc. of the sentence.
Keep reading to understand the different ways that adverbs can be used; tips to identify them; and how to use them yourself.
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Identifying adverbs can seem daunting because they can act on many different parts of speech (verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs).
Sometimes words can be used as both adjectives and adverbs, so we’ll show some examples of common forms and uses of adverbs to help you differentiate between these sentence modifiers.
Adverbs commonly take on the ending -ly. Many adverbs are made by adding -ly to the end of an adjective.
Examples of -ly adverbs:
However, not all adverbs end in -ly. This ending can also be used for some adjectives.
Then, other common adverbs do not have an adjective form. This includes adverbs like “quite”, “very”, “so,” and “only.” These adverbs do not have an -ly ending either.
Adverbs can come before or after the verb they modify, as well as at the beginning or the end of the sentence if they modify an entire phrase or sentence.
Adverbs never modify a noun, only adjectives do. Read the sentence to decide if you are given information about a noun (person, place, or thing) or something else (an action, phrase, or another modifier).
Examples:
In the first example, the word “sleepy” describes the dog. Because “dog” is a noun, we know that sleepy must be an adjective. The same is true for “bright” which describes the noun “sun.”
However, in the second sentence, the word “brightly” is used to describe how the sun shone. It modifies the verb “shone” meaning it is an adverb.
Now let’s look at different types of adverbs and learn easy ways to determine which type an adverb is.
Adverbs of degree specify the degree (or extent) to which the adjective or even another adverb applies.
Degree adverbs answer the question “How much?”
Example:
In the example above, extremely modifies the adjective “entertaining.” To check if this is an adverb of degree, ask “How entertaining was the movie?” The answer is “extremely.” Extremely is an adverb of degree.
Adverbs of place answer the question “where?”. They indicate the position in which the verb occurs.
Examples:
In the first example, the adverb “under” answers the question “where is the cat hiding?” Then, in the second sentence the adverb “there” answers the question of “where is the book?”.
Adverbs of time answer the question “when?”. Time adverbs can be exact, such as “now” or general like “today” or “later.”
Example:
To check our adverb we can ask the question “When will she arrive?” Our answer, tomorrow, is our time adverb.
Adverbs of frequency modify the verb by telling the reader “how often” the verb occurs. Frequency adverbs are sometimes considered time adverbs as well.
Examples:
In the second example, we can ask “How often does he study?” to find the adverb. The answer “always” is an adverb of frequency.
Adverbs of manner tell the reader “how” an action was performed. Typically manner adverbs end in -ly.
Example:
Check the adverb by asking the question “How did they speak?” Because we can answer this question with “softly,” we know that this is a manner adverb.
Conjunctive adverbs act as both adverbs and conjunctions in a sentence. This means they tell how, what, where, why, or when and join or create transitions between independent clauses.
A conjunctive adverb can be used at the beginning of the sentence, followed by a comma, or between two clauses.
When a conjunctive adverb is used between clauses, a semicolon is usually placed before the adverb and a comma is placed after it. Some common conjunctive adverbs include “finally,” “next,” “then,” “instead,” and “meanwhile.”
Examples:
In the first example, the adverb “therefore” is used to join two clauses within one sentence. In the second example, the adverb “additionally” creates a transition from the previous sentence to the next sentence.
Here are some more examples of adverbs used in different contexts. The type of adverb is noted in parentheses beside the sentence.
Adverbs are an important part of grammar. They use descriptive language to add detail to verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They can provide insight into the degree, place, time, frequency, and manner of something that is occurring. However, they aren’t used to modify nouns, instead you would need to use an adjective.
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