In English, words are grouped into word classes based on the function they perform in a sentence. There are nine main word classes in English; nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. This explanation is all about adverbs.
What is an adverb?
Adverbs are words that give more information to other words, adding to their meaning with details relating to place, time, manner, circumstance, or cause. Adverbs are most commonly used to describe a verb; however, they can also modify adjectives, other adverbs, or clauses.
Examples of Adverbs
There are plenty of adverbs in English, including:
Notice how the adverbs provide us with extra detail.
How to use adverbs
Adverbs can be used in several different places and perform several different jobs in a sentence. For this reason, it can sometimes be hard to pin down exactly which words are adverbs. There are three main uses for adverbs; modifying, intensifying, and connecting.
Modifying adverbs
Modifying adverbs are the most well-known adverbs - they add further information about a word. They are mostly used to modify verbs but may also modify adjectives and other adverbs. Let's look at some examples.
Examples of modifying adverbs
She ran quickly
I'm travelling tomorrow
Drive carefully!
Put your hands up slowly
Connecting adverbs
Connecting adverbs, also called linking adverbs or conjunctive adverbs, are used to connect clauses or sentences. They show a transition, a cause and effect relationship, or a contrast between two clauses. Examples include:
I drank too much coffee; therefore, I couldn't sleep during the night.
I stayed awake; meanwhile, my friends were asleep.
In the morning, I was exhausted. Nonetheless, I went out to the zoo.
I didn't see many animals; instead, I fell asleep in the monkey exhibit.
Notice the structure of the sentences - the adverbs often come after a full stop or after a semicolon when they are connecting two independent clauses. They are nearly always followed by a comma.
Intensifying adverbs
Adverbs may also strengthen the meaning of an adjective, another adverb, or a verb. In other words, they 'intensify' another word. These are called intensifying adverbs, but you may also know them as 'intensifiers'.
He did remarkably well on the test
I was very anxious to meet the new baby
The car was ridiculously expensive
It is highly unlikely that I am wrong
Intensifying adverbs can also show degrees of comparison. This may be to a higher degree, e.g. 'the stars were extremely bright', or to a lower degree, e.g. 'the stars were barely visible'.
Fig 1. The VERY tall giraffe
Types of adverbs
Now we know how and why we use adverbs, let's look at the different types of adverbs.
The most common types of adverbs are;
Adverbs of place
Adverbs of place are the 'where' adverbs. They answer the question 'where is the action taking place?'. Adverbs of place may also be called adverbs of space or spatial adverbs.
Here are some examples:
Adverbs of time
Adverbs of time are the 'when' adverbs. They answer the question 'when is the action done?'. Adverbs of time are often placed at the beginning or the end of a sentence. If we want to emphasize when the action is done, it is most effective to put the adverb at the beginning of the sentence.
Here are some examples:
Fig 2. Adverbs give us information on time-
Adverbs of manner
Adverbs of manner are the 'how' adverbs. They answer the question 'how is the action performed?'.
Examples of these adverbs include:
Adverbs of manner often end with the suffix '-ly'
Adverbs of frequency
Adverbs of frequency are the 'how often' adverbs. They answer the question 'how often is the action done?'.
Adverbs of degree
Adverbs of degree describe the degree to which an action was carried out. They answer the question 'how much' or 'to what extent is the action of the verb done?'. Adverbs of degree are usually intensifiers.
Adverbs of purpose
Adverbs of purpose explain why an action takes place. They are usually infinitive phrases, meaning they begin with the infinitive form of a verb, e.g. to sit, to walk, to see.
She went to her mum's to eat dinner
They phoned the restaurant to book a table
To avoid an argument, she left the party
He went to his room to read his book
Adverbs of probability
Adverbs of probability give information regarding the likeliness an event will happen.
They will probably come later
It's unlikely to rain today
He can't possibly be serious
Surely she knew this would end badly
Adverbs and suffixes
Suffixes can often indicate what word class a word belongs to. They may be used to convert one word class into another word class. For example, the suffix -ly can often change an adjective into an adverb.
There are suffixes that are typical for each word class; for adverbs, standard suffixes include -ly, -wards, and -wise.
Here are some examples:
It is important to note that some adverbs do not have any suffixes; instead, they act alone, e.g. just, here, now, therefore, soon, nevertheless, always, never, tomorrow.
Adverbial phrases
An adverbial phrase is a group of words that function as an adverb. This phrase can modify a verb, adjective, or adverb to give more information. Examples of adverbial phrases include:
As you can see in the examples, adverbial phrases are not simply adverbs; instead, they are a group of words that act as an adverb; they can provide information on where, when, why, how, how often, and how much.
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