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Adverbs

Adverbs modify verbs and provide information about how, where, and when actions occur. They are categorized into seven groups, including manner, place, time, frequency, sentence, degree, and focus, and are typically formed from adjectives. Adverbs can express positive, comparative, and superlative degrees, with some following specific rules for formation.

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5 views

Adverbs

Adverbs modify verbs and provide information about how, where, and when actions occur. They are categorized into seven groups, including manner, place, time, frequency, sentence, degree, and focus, and are typically formed from adjectives. Adverbs can express positive, comparative, and superlative degrees, with some following specific rules for formation.

Uploaded by

Paola Panetta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Adverbs

Function of an adverb

Adverbs are used to give more information about the action in a sentence.
They mainly modify verbs. They tell us how, where, when...etc something
happens or is done.

Also See:

Adjectives Adverbs Exercises


Adjectives vs Adverbs
Carol drives carefully. (How does she drive?)
I looked for her everywhere. (Where did you look for her?)
She came to London yesterday. (When did she come to London?)

Adverbs are generally divided into seven groups:

1) Manner: slowly, bravely, carefully, simply, quietly...


2) Place: there, here, up, down, near...
3) Time: yesterday, tomorrow, now, yet, still...
4) Frequency: never, always, often, once, twice...
5) Sentence: actually, really, obviously, evidently...
6) Degree: very, quite, rather, fairly, hardly...
7) Focus: just, only, simply, even, also...

Forming Adverbs

They are generally made from adjectives.

Many adverbs of manner and degree are formed by putting -ly at the
end of an adjectives.

slow - slowly happy - happily


cold - coldly rapid - rapidly
bad - badly kind - kindly

I don’t know why, but they spoke to me coldly.


The weather was awfully cold.
You should treat people gently.
Please, drive the car slowly.
When an adjective ends in consonant + y, it becomes -ly.

busy - busily
happy - happily
easy - easily
dry - drily (or dryly)

She is working busily.


Chuck passed the test easily.

When an adjective ends in -le, we omit -e and add -(l)y

noble - nobly
possible - possibly
simple - simply
gentle - gently

Ex: My mom brushes my hair gently every day.

When an adjectives ends in -e, we keep -e and add -ly.

extreme - extremely
free - freely
brave - bravely
safe - safely

His political ideas are extremely dull.


Our army fought bravely.

When an adjective ends in -ic, we add -ally.

Systematic - systematically
Phonetic - phonetically

We searched the attic systematically.


Mrs. Burns wanted us to write the words phonetically.

Degrees of Adverbs
 Positive : Expresses a quality without a comparison.

Ivan walks slowly.

 Comparative : Expresses a higher or lower degree than the positive.

Ida walks faster than Ivan.

 Superlative : Expresses the highest or the lowest degree when comparing


more than two things/persons.

Brad walks slowest.

1. Adverbs having the same form as adjectives:

POSITIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE


fast faster the fastest
early earlier the earliest
late later the latest
hard harder the hardest

They came earlier than me.


Kenyans always win prizes in marathons because they run the fastest of all.
My parents’ plane will arrive later than my uncle's.

2. Adverbs formed with –ly.

POSITIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE


easily more easily most easily
quickly more quickly most quickly
fluently more fluently most fluently
carefully more carefully most carefully

Linda drives more carefully than her husband.


Elizabeth speaks English the most fluently.
3. Irregular adverbs

POSITIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE


well better the best
badly worse the worst
the farthest / the
far father / further
furthest
much more the most

Who speaks English the best?


They do everything worse than us.
Home >> English Grammar Lessons >> Adverbs

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