Adverbs - A Quick Review

Drawing on the sources and our conversation history, let’s take a quick review of adverbs in English.

What are Adverbs?

An adverb is a word, or a set of words, that modifies verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They add to the verb or modify it. Adverbs give additional information about verbs, things associated with the verb, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Think of adverbs as providing detail about how something happens or how someone does something. They typically express when, where, how an action is performed, or indicate the quality or degree of the action. Understanding adverbs is important because they help to brighten up and sharpen our language, making it more impactful and adding flavour.

Forms of Adverbs

Adverbs can appear in several forms:

• Single words (e.g., always, fast, willingly, equally, carefully, slowly, completely, thoroughly, hardly, financially, technically, politically, even, only, quickly, suddenly, well).
• Phrases (e.g., very much, until he was tired, carrying her suitcases with two hands, without any reason, through the jungle, in a bank, to college, at a goddess, a little late, on Monday, occasionally). Prepositional phrases often function as adverbs. These are called adverb phrases.
• Clauses (e.g., until he was tired). Clauses can function as adverbs for modifications at a sentential level. These are called adverbial clauses. Adverbial clauses are typically adjuncts that simply provide additional information. They are considered optional elements in a sentence and are not dictated by the nature of the verb. You can have multiple adjuncts in a sentence.

How to Identify Adverbs

Besides their function, adverbs can often be identified by:

• Ending in -ly: Many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective (e.g., beautiful -> beautifully, equal -> equally, thankful -> thankfully, careful -> carefully, easy -> easily, heavy -> heavily). However, not all adverbs end in -ly, and some words ending in -ly can be adjectives. Also, some words can function as both adjectives and adverbs without the -ly ending (e.g., hard, fast, late, early). The adverb form of ‘good’ is ‘well’.
• Answering questions: Adverbs often answer questions such as:
  • How? (Manner)
  • How much? (Degree)
  • Where? / In what direction? (Place/Direction)
  • When? / How often? (Time/Frequency)

Classifications of Adverbs

The sources provide a few ways to classify adverbs:

1. Generic Classification

• Adverbs of Manner: Describe how an action is performed. They often end in -ly. Examples include equally, carefully, slowly, fast.
• Adverbs of Degree: Explain or indicate the amount or extent of something. They answer the question how much. They can modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Examples include completely, thoroughly, so, hardly, very, too, quite, rather, slightly. Degree adverbs are used before the word they modify. There are specific rules for using ‘very’ and ’too’ with certain types of adjectives, like participle adjectives. Degree adverbs like ‘hugely’, ’extremely’, ‘absolutely’, and ‘completely’ are used with different types of adjectives (gradable vs. non-gradable).
• Adverbs of Place or Direction: Indicate the place or direction where the action is being performed. They answer the question where. Examples include through the jungle, in a bank, to college, at a goddess, across, over, under, in, out, through, backward, there, around, here, sideways, upstairs.
• Adverbs of Time or Frequency: Talk about the timing and frequency of the action. They answer the questions when or how often. Examples include yesterday, always, on Monday, occasionally, never, often, eventually, now, frequently, once, forever, seldom, and specific days or times.
• Sentence Adverbs: These adverbs take an entire sentence in their scope and modify the whole sentence. They usually occur at the beginning of the sentence. They indicate the attitude or point of view of the speaker or writer. Examples include hopefully, apparently, certainly, obviously, actually.
• Conjunctive Adverbs: These adverbs connect independent clauses and phrases. They show the relationship between two ideas expressed in different sentences.

2. Functional Classification This classification focuses on the pragmatic part of adverbs and how they sharpen language.

• Comment Adverbs: Indicate likelihood or the speaker’s stance. They can occur anywhere in the sentence (initial, middle, or end). When they apply to the whole sentence and come at the beginning, they are often separated by a comma. Examples include apparently, certainly, clearly, definitely, obviously, presumably, undoubtedly. They add a comment rather than stating certainty.
• Viewpoint Adverbs: Indicate perspectives, often for clarity. Examples include biologically, chemically, environmentally, ideologically, logically, morally, outwardly, politically, technically, visually, visibly, financially.
• Focus Adverbs: These words focus on specific parts of the sentence. Examples given are even and only.

Structural Position and Word Order

Adverbs function as adjuncts, meaning they are generally not required elements of a sentence. Structurally, clauses can appear as nouns (subject, object), adjectives, or adverbs (adjuncts for modifications). Adverbial clauses are distinct from adjectival clauses; adjectival clauses modify nouns and occur to the right of the noun, while adverbial clauses give additional information.

For word order, the verb and its object are usually together. Adverbs often follow the verb and object (e.g., He speaks English very well). Some adverbs like always, usually, and often have specific positions, often before the main verb or after ‘be’. Sentence adverbs typically appear at the beginning.

Learning and Using Adverbs

Understanding the nature and function of adverbs contributes to building confidence in speaking and writing. To effectively learn and use adverbs, the sources suggest paying attention to how others use them, observing them in spontaneous speech and writing, practicing with them, and incorporating them into your own language. This conscious effort, combined with observing how the mind processes language, leads to improved accuracy and impact.