What are adverbs?

Adverbs are words that tell us more about verbs....they add information to the verb. (A verb is a 'doing' word or a 'being' word, e.g. 'walk', 'feel') Using adverbs makes your sentences more interesting. Any verb you use can have an adverb added. The girl smiled nervously. The boy grinned sheepishly. The light shone feebly. We use adverbs:

to say how something happens 'The family walk (how?) quickly.' to say where or when something happens 'I met him (when?) yesterday.' to say how often something happens 'She gets the bus (how often?) daily.' to make the meaning of an adjective, adverb or verb stronger or weaker 'Dave eats (degree?) more slowly than his wife.'

Adverbs are often created from adjectives (describing words that tell you more about nouns) by adding 'ly' to the end of the adjective. e.g. slow becomes slowly 'Joe is a slow person. He walks slowly.' Certain words change when they become adverbs. If an adjective ends in a 'y' you need to change the 'y' to an 'i' before adding 'ly'. Happy becomes happily Heavy becomes heavily

Position of adverbs
There are three places in the sentence where adverbs can come. At the beginning of a sentence: 'Suddenly I had earache.' 'Recently I had earache.' In the middle of a sentence: 'I suddenly had earache.' 'I recently had earache.' At the end of a sentence: 'I had earache suddenly.' 'I had earache recently.' How do you know where the adverb goes? Most kinds of adverbs can go in 'mid-position' (before the verb) in a sentence: 'I'm usually working at weekends.' 'I never said I liked you.' Other adverbs may fit more comfortably at the beginning or end of a sentence: 'Yesterday I went to the skate park.' 'I went to the skate park yesterday.' The best way to know if the order is right is to say the sentence to yourself. Does it sound right? 'She often is late.' 'She is often late.' This sounds better.

Spotting adverbs
Adverbs are quite complicated. You cannot tell by the look of a word that it is an adverb. You can recognise it as an adverb only by the work it does in a sentence. A word may be an adverb in one sentence and a different part of speech in another sentence.

The job went well. Here well describes the verb 'went', so it is an adverb. The well was drained by morning. Here well names something, so it is a noun. The well water tasted disgusting. Here well is being used to name a type of 'water', so it is not describing a verb. It is not an adverb here.

'-ly' on the end of a word is a good clue that it's an adverb. Many adverbs are made by adding '-ly' to the end of adjectives E.g. 'careful' (adjective) becomes 'carefully' (adverb) Sunita is very careful with her money. She spends her money carefully. However, lots of other adverbs are irregular BEWARE! Some words ending in '-ly' are never used as adverbs E.g. 'friendly', 'lovely', 'lonely' Also, look out for adverbs that have the same form as adjectives. 'Hard' and 'early' are both adjectives (used to describe people, places and things) AND adverbs (used to tell us more about the verb):

It's still early. (adjective) We arrived early. (adverb) He works very hard. (adverb) He's a hard man to know. (adjective)

Other adverbs with the same form as adjectives are fast, high, low, late and long.

Adverbs - degrees of comparison

Adverbs are often used to make the meaning of a verb or other adverb stronger or weaker. This is known as 'degrees of comparison'. What are they? The positive degree is the simple form of the adverb : slowly, early. e.g. 'He walked slowly.' The comparative degree is used to compare two actions : slower, more slowly, earlier. e.g. 'Sarah walked more slowly than Ben.' The superlative comparison is used to compare three or more : slowest, earliest. e.g. 'We all take our time, but I walk the slowest of all.'

How do you make them? Adverbs of one syllable usually form the comparative by adding - er and form the superlative by adding - est 'hard' (positive) - 'harder' (comparative) - 'hardest' (superlative) Adverbs of two syllables or more generally form the comparative by adding more and the superlative by adding most. 'quickly' (positive) - 'more quickly' (comparative) - 'most quickly' (superlative)

Watch out! Examples of exceptions badly: worse (comparative) - worst (superlative). well: better (comparative) - best (superlative). far: farther (comparative) - farthest (superlative).