What are
Adverbs?
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')
(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.
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.'
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
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.
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 isnotanadverbhere.
'-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.
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'
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):
'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)
- Wearrived 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.
More about
spotting adverbs
Adverbial
phrases
Adverbial phrases are small strings of words that do the same job as single-word adverbs:
'I'll see him on Saturday.'
'She's in the kitchen.'
''The thief ran down the road.'
'The mobile phones rang all at once.'
Adverbial phrases are small strings of words that do the same job as single-word adverbs:
'I'll see him on Saturday.'
'She's in the kitchen.'
''The thief ran down the road.'
'The mobile phones rang all at once.'
Other places to
find adverbs...
An adverb may also be used to describe another adverb or an adjective.
An adverb may also be used to describe another adverb or an adjective.
'The weekend passed very quickly.'
- quickly describes
the verb passed: quickly is
an adverb.
- very describes
the adverb quickly: very is
also an adverb.
'That seemed an extremely
interesting plan.'
- interesting describes
the noun plan: interesting is
an adjective.
- extremely describes
the adjective interesting: extremely is
an adverb.
Adverbs can also qualify (describe) whole
sentences:
'Hopefully the shoes will fit.'
'The dress, unfortunately, was ruined.'
'The dress, unfortunately, was ruined.'
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).
Teacher Danilo
Zap: 11-95335-0234
