ADVERBS

An adverb is a word that adds more to the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another adverb. I dreamt about you last night. (dreamt=verb; last night=adverb) The monster was incredibly ugly. (ugly=adjective; incredibly=adverb) The heart patient collapsed quite suddenly. (suddenly=adverb; quite=adverb)

An adverb is usually placed after the verb when it is used in a sentence as follow:

He called yesterday. The train will arrive soon. They struggled hard to reach the top. The patient is sleeping soundly.

Unlike adjectives, adverbs do not modify nouns. CORRECT: The woman has a beautiful daughter. (Adjective) INCORRECT: The woman has a beautifully daughter. (Adverb) CORRECT: She was still sad about it. (Adjective) INCORRECT: She was still sadly about it. (Adverb)

Some words can be both adverbs and adjectives as follow: far, hard, and long. It is important to distinguish how they are used. I dont live far away from here. (Adverb) Where I live isnt far from here. (Adjective) She worked quite hard. (Adverb) She found the work quite hard. (Adjective) If we exercise regularly, we may live longer. (Adverb) If we exercise regularly, we may live longer lives. (Adjective)

1. Types of Adverbs 2. Comparison of Adverbs 3. Forming Adverbs from Adjectives 1. Types of Adverbs

Adverb of Time This shows when an action or something is done or happens. It answers the question "When?" It is either placed at thebeginning or at the end of a sentence. When they are at the beginning, they are often emphasized.

Example: I phoned you yesterday. Example: I saw her a few months ago. Example: Last week I saw them walking together.

Adverb of Place This shows where an action or something is done or happens. It answers the question "Where?" Such adverbs are placed after the verb.

Example: I live here. / He fell down. / They are talking outside. / He walkedin. Example: We met her in the zoo. Example: They like to walk along the river.

Adverb of Manner This shows how an action or something is done. It answers the question "How?" The adverb is placed just after the verb when it is used in a sentence.

Example: She cried loudly. / He drives quickly. / She speaks softly.

Adverb of Degree or Quantity This answers the questions, "To what degree?" or "How much?" It is usually placed before the adjective and the adverb.

Example: It is too dark for us to see anything. (Before adjective) Example: Last night it rained very heavily. (Before adverb)

Adverb of Frequency This answers the question "How often?"Adverbs of frequency are very important because we often use them. Examples of these adverbs include: never, rarely, seldom, hardly ever, occasionally, sometimes, generally, usually, frequently, nearly always, often and ever. Also included are: quite, just, already, almost and nearly.

Example: He will never have finished in time. Example: Jane is rarely late for work. Example: Peter seldom reads the Bible. Example: Sue hardly ever wore lipstick. Example: We only write to each other very occasionally. Example: Sometimes he stays late in the office to complete his work. Example: The proposal is not generally acceptable to the public. Example: It is usually the man who proposes marriage. Example: While overseas, he frequently phoned home. Example: She's not nearly always right although she thinks she's always right. Example: We always go to school by bus. Example: Sharon has often forgotten her books. Example: Does he ever come to play chess?

Affirmative Adverb (yes) and Adverb of negation (No) - examples of this adverb includes: yes, surely, certainly, indeed, by all means, no,not at all, by no means.

Example: I hope my parent just for once will say yes to my latest idea. Example: You must have heard about the haunted house surely? Example: Certainly we'll try to rid this place of the foul odor. Example: It would indeed help if I had a bodyguard. Example: By all means eat whatever you want, but I think you will not be able to finish all the food. Example: Oh no, not another breakdown at the traffic lights? Example: It is not at all certain that the match will take place. Example: It is by no means easy that we will finish it soon.

Interrogative Adverb (Question): When? Where? How? Why? How much/often?

Example: When was the last time you saw the accused? Example: Where have you been all the while? Example: How could you have overlooked all these mistakes? Example: Why do you have to do such a stupid thing?

Relative Adverb: when, where, how, why These words are the same in form as Interrogative Adverbs; but they are not questions.

Example: The time when he arrived is still unknown. Example: The scene where the accident occurred is close to the hospital. Example: He is the only one who knows how to do it. Example: Nobody knows why he left in such a hurry.

2. Comparison of Adverbs Similar to the comparison of adjectives, adverbs have three degrees of comparison the Positive, the Comparative and the Superlative. Most adverbs which end in '-ly' form the Comparative with 'more' and the Superlative with 'most'. Positive comfortably happily kindly loudly noisily Comparative more comfortably more happily more kindly more loudly more noisily Superlative most comfortably most happily most kindly most loudly most noisily

Positive bad, badly little much well

Comparative worse less more better

Superlative worst least most best

3. Forming Adverbs from Adjectives

Adverbs are formed from adjectives by adding ly. However, not all words ending in ly are adverbs. The following words are good examples of adjectives ending in ly: costly, deadly, friendly, kindly, likely, lively, lowly, manly, sickly, and timely

LIST 4 shows a list of adverbs formed from adjectives. List 4 - Forming Adverbs from Adjectives

ADJECTIVES abrupt absolute accidental active actual adamant additional affectionate angry annual anxious apparent appreciative apprehensive appropriate approving approximate apt ardent arduous arguable attentive audible awkward bad beautiful bitter boastful bold brave brief bright brutal busy

ADVERBS abruptly absolutely accidentally actively actually adamantly additionally affectionately angrily annually anxiously apparently appreciatively apprehensively appropriately approvingly approximately aptly ardently arduously arguably attentively audibly awkwardly badly beautifully bitterly boastfully boldly bravely briefly brightly brutally busily

ADJECTIVES lawful lazy light lone loud lucky mad main mannish magic mental merciful mere merry momentary monthly narrow natural near neat nebulous necessary needless nervous new nice nightly noisy obedient occasional open oppressive optimistic oral

ADVERBS lawfully lazily lightly lonely loudly luckily madly mainly mannishly magically mentally mercifully merely merrily momentarily monthly narrowly naturally nearly neatly nebulously necessarily needlessly nervously newly nicely nightly noisily obediently occasionally openly oppressively optimistically orally

calm careful careless casual cautious certain cheap cheerful clean clear clever close comfortable complete conclusive conscious constant continual continuous copious correct courteous crooked cruel cunning curious dangerous daring dear deep definite deliberate delightful dim dirty double dull eager easy economic efficient enjoyable enormous entire essential

calmly carefully carelessly casually cautiously certainly cheaply cheerfully cleanly clearly cleverly closely comfortably completely conclusively consciously constantly continually continuously copiously correctly courteously crookedly cruelly cunningly curiously dangerously daringly dearly deeply definitely deliberately delightfully dimly dirtily doubly dully eagerly easily economically efficiently enjoyably enormously entirely essentially

outward painful partial particular passionate patent patient peaceful perfect permanent personal pessimistic physical pious playful pleasant polite poor popular possible posthumous pretty previous primary private probable problematic promiscuous proper proud punctual pure puritanical purposeless quick quiet rapid rare rational ready real recent regular ridiculous rough

outwardly painfully partially particularly passionately patently patiently peacefully perfectly permanently personally pessimistically physically piously playfully pleasantly politely poorly popularly possibly posthumously prettily previously primarily privately probably problematically promiscuously properly proudly punctually purely puritanically purposelessly quickly quietly rapidly rarely rationally readily really recently regularly ridiculously roughly

eternal ethical ethnic etymological euphemistic evasive even eventual evident exorbitant extreme faithful fastidious fatal fearful fierce final financial first foolish forgetful fortunate free frequent friendly frightful full general generous gentle gentleman genuine glad graceful gradual grim grudging gruelling gruesome half-yearly haphazard happy hard harsh hasty

eternally ethically ethnically etymologically euphemistically evasively evenly eventually evidently exorbitantly extremely faithfully fastidiously fatally fearfully fiercely finally financially firstly foolishly forgetfully fortunately freely frequently friendily frightfully fully generally generously gently gentlemanly genuinely gladly gracefully gradually grimly grudgingly gruellingly gruesomely half-yearly haphazardly happily hardly harshly hastily

rude sad safe satisfactory savage secret seeming sentimental separate serene serial serious severe shaky shameful shameless sheepish shy significant silent simple sincere single-handed skilful sleepy slight slow soft sole sound special steadfast steady stealthy strange strong stupid subtle successful sudden sure surprising sweet swift tactical

rudely sadly safely satisfactorily savagely secretly seemingly sentimentally separately serenely serially seriously severely shakily shamefully shamelessly sheepishly shyly significantly silently simply sincerely single-handedly skillfully sleepily slightly slowly softly solely soundly specially steadfastly steadily stealthily strangely strongly stupidly subtly successfully suddenly surely surprisingly sweetly swiftly tactically

hateful heavy helpful helpless high holistic honest honourable hopeful horrible hourly hungry hypothetical hysterical immaculate immediate impatient individual inescapable inestimable inevitable inexorable infallible instant instantaneous instinctive jealous joint joyful justifiable keen kind knowing knowledgeable last late

hatefully heavily helpfully helplessly highly holistically honestly honourably hopefully horribly hourly hungrily hypothetically hysterically immaculately immediately impatiently individually inescapably inestimably inevitably inexorably infallibly instantly instantaneously instinctively jealously jointly joyfully justifiably keenly kindly knowingly knowledgeably lastly lately

tactless terrible terrifying terse thankful thorough thoughtful thoughtless total tremendous tremulous true truthful unacceptable unarguable understandable undoubted unexpected untruthful unusual urbane urgent usual vast verbal veritable weary weekly whole-hearted wide wild willing wise wrong yearly youthful

tactlessly terribly terrifyingly tersely thankfully thorougly thoughtfully thoughtlessly totally tremendously tremulously truly truthfully unacceptably unarguably understandably undoubtedly unexpectedly untruthfully unusually urbanely urgently usually vastly verbally veritably wearily weekly whole-heartedly widely wildly willingly wisely wrongly yearly youthfully