Adverbs

In a previous blog post, we spoke of two specific adverbial groups – adverbs of frequency, which tell us how often something happens, and adverbs of place, which tell us where something happens. Here are three more varieties:

3. Adverbs of time

Time adverbs tell us when or for how long an action happens. In the first two examples below, the adverbs tell us when the action takes place, while adverbs in the last couple of sentences refer to the length of action.

Dan called me last night.

I’m afraid we’ll have to leave now.

We’ve been here since morning.

I think Tessa and Peter dated for a year.

Time adverbs are among the commonest words in English, so they appear quite frequently in our sentences. When talking about the length of an action, we often use the words for and since followed by a time expression. The word for is usually followed by a period of time (e.g. 12 hours, weeks, a year), whereas since is followed by a point in time (e.g. morning, Christmas, 1983).

4. Adverbs of degree

An adverb of degree refers to intensity, indicating the degree or extent of something. In the examples below, the adverbs enough, a bit, really, and too tell us just how hot the coffee is.

The coffee is hot enough.

The coffee is a bit hot.

The coffee is really hot.

The coffee is too hot.

Degree adverbs can modify adjectives (like in the examples above), verbs, or other adverbs. So, it is common to place them before the word they modify in a sentence.

5. Adverbs of probability

Adverbs of probability indicate how certain the speaker is about something. In the sentences below, the adverbs perhaps and possibly show less certainty, while definitely and certainly indicate high probability.

Perhaps Tom will be there at the party.

Tom will possibly be there at the party.

Tom will definitely be there at the party.

Tom will certainly be there at the party.

One challenge when learning new adverbs is knowing where to place them in a sentence. So, remember to read up on placement rules when learning new adverb categories. We’ll be back soon with some more types.

Many English speakers believe that an adverb is any word ending in –ly, but holding such a belief may do you more harm than good.

In reality, not every word that ends in –ly is an adverb, so this approach can be misleading at best. For example, the word rally is a noun as well as verb, while silly, friendly, and pally are adjectives. More importantly, there is no regular structure to adverbs, which means that they come in all shapes and sizes. The words only, well, already, too, and sometimes are all adverbs, although they aren’t similar in appearance.

Adverbs, put simply, are words that modify the meaning of other words (e.g. verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs) around them. At times they can also modify the meaning of entire sentences. Here are some common types of adverbs:

1. Adverbs of frequency

As the name suggests, such adverbs show just how frequently something happens. It is common to use an adverb of frequency with the present simple tense to talk about how often we do something.

I always drink green tea in the morning.

John often goes to the cinema with friends.

Sally hardly ever listens to rock and roll.

I never buy clothes online.

Sometimes we talk about repeated action by using the word ‘every’ followed by a time expression, or by pluralising a day of the week.

Jan plays football with friends every Sunday.

I wash my car every week.

Mathew goes to Spain every month.

They have a barbeque in the garden on Sundays.

2. Adverbs of place

An adverb of place generally provides information on location or movement. The first two sentences below talk about the direction (ran downstairs, drove past old building) where someone is moving, whereas the next two talk about distances (miles away, nearby).

The kids ran downstairs when they heard the doorbell.

We drove past many old buildings.

Mona’s house is a couple of miles away. 

There is a decent café nearby.

We’ll be back with more on adverbs in later posts.