| What is an Adverb? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What are the types of adverbs? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What are various examples of adverbs? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| What is the difference between types and forms of adverbs? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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How do you identify an adverb? What Are Adverbials? Comparative and Superlative Adverbs What are frequency adverbs? How is a frequency adverb placed with a be verb and other verbs? The frequency adverb is placed properly after a be verb or before other verbs. What is an adverb of manner, place, time, frequency, and degree? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Frequency adverbs are adverbs that state the frequency of an action. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The frequency adverbs are placed after the main verb (if the main verb is not the verb "to be). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The adverbs in EnglishAdverbs tell us in what way someone does something. Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. Adjectives tell us something about a person or a thing. Adjectives can modify nouns or pronouns.
Mandy is a careful driver. This sentence is about Mandy, the driver, so use the adjective. Mandy drives carefully. This sentence is about her way of driving, so use the adverb. FormAdjective + -ly
Tip: Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. adjectives ending in -ly: friendly, silly, lonely, ugly There is no adverb for an andjective ending in -ly. Types of adverbs1) Adverbs of manner 2) Adverbs of degree 3) Adverbs of frequency 4) Adverbs of time 5) Adverbs of place There are three forms: - positive A - Comparison with -er/-esthard - harder - (the) hardest We use -er/-est with the following adverbs: 1) all adverbs with one syllable
2) The adverb: earlyB - Comparison with more - mostcarefully - more carefully - (the) most carefully adverbs ending on -ly (not: early) C - Irregular adverbs
ATTENTION! The position of adverbs in sentencesWe can put adverbs in different positions in sentences. There are three main positions but also a lot of exceptions. In English we never put an adverb between the verb and the object.
The three main positions of adverbs in English sentences1) Adverb at the beginning of a sentence Unfortunately, we could not see Mount Snowdon. 2) Adverb in the middle of a sentence The children often ride their bikes. 3) Adverb at the end of a sentence Andy reads a comic every afternoon. More than one adverb at the end of a sentenceIf there are more adverbs at the end of a sentence, the word order is normally: Manner - Place - Time Peter sang the song happily in the bathroom yesterday evening. Adverbs of frequencyalways, usually, regularly, normally, often, sometimes, occasionally, rarely, seldom, never are adverbs of frequency. The position of these adverbs is: before the main verb
after a form of to be am, are, is (was, were)
The adverbs often, usually, sometimes and occasionally can go at the beginning of a sentence. Somtimes these adverbs are put at the end of the sentence. The following adjectives and adverbs have the same form:
The following adverbs are not derived from adjectives:
These adverbs have two forms:
While some adverbs can be identified by their characteristic "ly" suffix, most of them must be identified by untangling the grammatical relationships within the sentence or clause as a whole. Unlike an adjective, an adverb can be found in various places within the sentence. In the following examples, each of the highlighted words is an adverb: The seamstress quickly made the mourning clothes. In this sentence, the adverb "quickly" modifies the verb "made" and indicates in what manner (or how fast) the clothing was constructed. The midwives waited patiently through a long labour. Similarly in this sentence, the adverb "patiently" modifies the verb "waited" and describes the manner in which the midwives waited. The boldly spoken words would return to haunt the rebel. In this sentence the adverb "boldly" modifies the adjective "spoken." We urged him to dial the number more expeditiously. Here the adverb "more" modifies the adverb "expeditiously." Unfortunately, the bank closed at three today. In this example, the adverb "unfortunately" modifies the entire sentence. Conjunctive Adverbs You can use a conjunctive adverb to join two clauses together. Some of the most common conjunctive adverbs are "also," "consequently," "finally," "furthermore," "hence," "however," "incidentally," "indeed," "instead," "likewise," "meanwhile," "nevertheless," "next," "nonetheless," "otherwise," "still," "then," "therefore," and "thus." A conjunctive adverb is not strong enough to join two independent clauses without the aid of a semicolon. The highlighted words in the following sentences are conjunctive adverbs: The government has cut university budgets; consequently, class sizes have been increased. He did not have all the ingredients the recipe called for; therefore, he decided to make something else. The report recommended several changes to the ways the corporation accounted for donations; furthermore, it suggested that a new auditor be appointed immediately. The crowd waited patiently for three hours; finally, the doors to the stadium were opened. Batman and Robin fruitlessly searched the building; indeed, the Joker had escaped through a secret door in the basement. English Adverbs List An adverb is a part of speech that describes or modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, clause, or sentence. What is an Adverb? covers adverbs as modifiers (in adverbial functions), adverb formation, adverbs position, adverbs as intensifiers, adverbs classified by their functions, comparison of adverbs, links. Position of Adverbs Adverb of Manner (e.g.: slowly, carefully, awfully) These adverbs are put behind the direct object (or behind the verb if there's no direct object). subject verb(s) direct object adverb He drove the car carefully. He drove carefully. Exercise on adverbs of manner Adverbs of Place (e.g.: here, there, behind, above) Like adverbs of manner, these adverbs are put behind the direct object or the verb. subject verb(s) direct object adverb I didn't see him here. He stayed behind. Exercise on adverbs of place Adverbs of Time (e.g.: recently, now, then, yesterday) Adverbs of time are usually put at the end of the sentence. subject verb(s) indirect object direct object time I will tell you the story tomorrow. If you don't want to put emphasis on the time, you can also put the adverb of time at the beginning of the sentence. time subject verb(s) indirect object direct object Tomorrow I will tell you the story. Adverbs of Frequency (e.g.: always, never, seldom, usually) Adverbs of frequency are put directly before the main verb. If 'be' is the main verb and there is no auxiliary verb, adverbs of frequency are put behind 'be'. Is there an auxiliary verb, however, adverbs of frequency are put before 'be'. subject auxiliary/be adverb main verb object, place or time I often go swimming in the evenings. He doesn't always play tennis. We are usually here in summer. I have never been abroad. Adverbs How do you identify an adverb? The word "the" can be used as an article and an adverb. An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. An adverb "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man ran quickly). But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works very well). Many different kinds of word are called adverbs. We can usually recognise an adverb by its: 1. Function (Job) 2. Form 3. 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. Adverbs of Frequency always, sometimes, never... As you no doubt already know, the natural order for an English sentence is subject-verb, or subject-verb-object, or subject-verb-subject complement. Sometimes we vary this bread-and-butter structure by starting the sentence with something other than the subject (and whatever modifiers belong to the subject). Such an introductory element can be a word, a phrase, or a clause, and in many cases it will function adverbially. Exercise on the Form of Adverbs Find the adjective in the first sentence and fill the gap with the adverb. 1. Joanne is happy. She smiles ______. 2. The boy is loud. He shouts ______. 3. Her English is fluent. She speaks English ______. 4. Our mum was angry. She spoke to us ______. 5. My neighbour is a careless driver. He drives ______. 6. The painter is awful. He paints ______. 7. Jim is a wonderful piano player. He plays the piano ______. 8. This girl is very quiet. She often sneaks out of the house ______. 9. She is a good dancer. She dances really ______. 10. This exercise is simple. You ______ have to put one word in each space. 1. Joanne is happy. She smiles happily. When adding '-ly', 'y' becomes 'i'.(i) 2. The boy is loud. He shouts loudly. 3. Her English is fluent. She speaks English fluently. 4. Our mum was angry. She spoke to us angrily. When adding '-ly', 'y' becomes 'i'.(i) 5. My neighbour is a careless driver. He drives carelessly. 6. The painter is awful. He paints awfully. 7. Jim is a wonderful piano player. He plays the piano wonderfully. 8. This girl is very quiet. She often sneaks out of the house quietly. 9. She is a good dancer. She dances really well. The adverb of 'good' is 'well'(i) 10. This exercise is simple. You simply have to put one word in each space. '-le' becomes '-ly'.(i) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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We have seen that an adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun. An adverb is usually defined as a word that gives more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and adverbs in terms of such qualities as time, frequency and manner. In the sentence Sue runs fast, fast describes how or the manner in which Sue runs. In the sentence Sue runs very fast, very describes the adverb fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs. Most, but not all adverbs end in -ly as in But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (ugly is an adjective, supply and reply can both be nouns or verbs). Many times an adjective can be made into an adverb by adding -ly as in nicely, quickly, completely, sincerely. Adverbs
of time tell when something happens
and adverbs of frequency tell how often
something happens. Below are some common adverbs
of time and frequency which you should learn:
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Adverbs are most often used to give more information about
subjects verbs questions nouns prepositions
2) Which kind of word can an adverb describe? pronoun preposition adjective conjunction article 3) Which contains an adverb? full house three women was dirty very funny early morning 4) Which contains an adverb? rich man study hard one time easy job hard life 5) Which contains an adverb? went quickly friendly people good question fast food free time 6) Which does not contain an adverb? very late dinner came too early early bird woke up early came late 7) Which does not contain an adverb? sincerely yours drive safely ate fast too easy my supply 8) Which part of speech is used to describe an adverb? conjunction pronoun adverb adjective verb 9) What is the most common ending for adverbs? -ive -ate -ly -tion 10) How many adverbs are in I really woke up too early this morning? 0 1 2 3 4 |
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1.verbs 2.adjective 3.very funny 4.study hard 5.went quickly 6.early bird 7.my supply 8.adverb 9.-ly 10.3 |
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Many English teachers are influenced by a false idea about adverbs that they probably learnt at school, namely that adverbs are ‘words that modify verbs’. This is only a small part of what the versatile adverb can do. It can also modify adjectives, numbers, clauses, whole sentences and other adverbs. The only thing that an adverb can’t modify, in fact, is a noun. This makes the adverb a kind of ‘catch-all’ category of words that don’t fit in any other category. Another false idea that you might have learnt: ‘adverbs are words that end in -ly’. It is true that many adverbs do end in -ly, but friendly, lovely, lonely, likely, ugly, deadly, cowardly and silly are all adjectives, and cannot be used as adverbs. There are also some adjectives in -ly that can be used as adverbs, such as daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, early. |