Adverbs

ADVERBS

Adverbs are words used to describe verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

Important types of adverbs

Used to describe how, where, when, how often, or for how long something happens

       How?      The dog barked excitedly. • She was driving too fast.

       Where?    Come outside. • They built a factory nearby.

       When?     It’s going to rain soon. • I haven’t read the newspaper yet.

       How often?     You’re always complaining. • We usually eat out on Sunday.

       How long?      The bridge is temporarily closed for repairs. • I won’t stand here forever.

Used to change the strength of a verb, adjective, or adverb

       verb The car almost crashed. • The medicine helped him enormously.

       adjective  It’s really cold. • The situation is extraordinarily complex.

       adverb    We’ll finish pretty soon. • He talks unbelievably fast.

See: Very, completely and other intensifiers

Used to give information about the attitude of the speaker or writer.

Adverbs like these typically modify the entire clause or sentence and are sometimes called sentence adverbs.

Surprisingly, all the children came on time • Unfortunately I disagree with you. • It’s obviously too expensive. • Hopefully (= I hope that) I’ll be back before nine. (Some people consider this use of hopefully to be incorrect, although it is very common in speech.)

Used to show how certain the speaker or writer is of something

Maybe the team will win. • The doctor said it was probably nothing serious. • Have you definitely decided to quit your job?

Used to describe the point of view from which something is considered

The movie was commercially successful in spite of the bad reviews. • He was careful to use politically correct language that wouldn’t offend anyone.

Used to limit reference to a particular case or add emphasis

I bought this especially for you. • You can only get there by car. • Even Joanna thought the movie was funny.

Used to show a connection between sentences or clauses

Lara’s plan seemed good. Her boss didn’t like it though. • Let me finish this, and then I can help you. • I don’t know why John left.

Used before a preposition or adverb.

A few adverbs can be used immediately before another adverb or a prepositional phrase. They often mean “exactly” or “completely.”

It broke right down the middle. (used with a prepositional phrase) • Go right ahead. (used with an adverb)

Other adverbs like this are all, bang, full, and smack.

Order of adverbs

When a sentence has more than one adverb at the end, the normal order answers the questions “how”, “where”, and “when”?

                HOW     WHERE    WHEN

         The girls were playing  quietly     outside.  

         We’ll have to go  back soon.