What are Adverbs?
Many different kinds of word are called adverbs. We can usually recognise an
adverb by its:
- Function (Job)
- Form
- Position
1. Function
The principal job of an adverb is to modify (give more information about)
verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. In the following examples, the adverb is
in bold and the word that it modifies is in italics.
- Modify a verb:
- John speaks loudly. (How does John
speak?)
- Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)
- She
never smokes. (When does she smoke?)
- Modify an adjective:
- He is really handsome.
- Modify another adverb:
- She drives incredibly
slowly.
But adverbs have other functions, too. They can:
- Modify a whole sentence:
- Obviously, I can't know
everything.
- Modify a prepositional phrase:
- It's immediately inside the
door.
2. Form
Many adverbs end in -ly. We form such adverbs by adding -ly to the
adjective. Here are some examples:
- quickly, softly, strongly, honestly, interestingly
But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. "Friendly", for example, is
an adjective.
Some adverbs have no particular form, for example:
- well, fast, very, never, always, often, still
3. Position
Adverbs have three main positions in the sentence:
- Front (before the subject):
- Now we will study
adverbs.
- Middle (between the subject and the main verb):
- We often study
adverbs.
- End (after the verb or object):
- We study adverbs
carefully.
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