Adverbs and Adverbials

An adverb is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or an entire sentence. Adverbs are usually single words that often end in -ly, and in many cases, adverbs are constructed by adding -ly to the adjective counterparts (e.g., beautiful → beautifully).

Adverbs can be used to describe how something is done or to tell how many or how much of something there is. Using adverbs can be helpful to provide a more detailed description in a sentence.

There are five types of adverbs: time, manner, degree, place, and frequency. The adverbs in each of the five categories are used in sentences to describe when, how, to what extent, where, and how often something is done.

Types of adverbs

Adverb type	What it does	Adverb examples
Adverb of time	Provides information about when a verb takes place	never, lately, just, always, recently, during, yet, soon, sometimes, usually, so far
Adverb of manner	Provides information about how a verb is done	carefully, softly, slowly, quickly, sadly, calmly, politely, loudly, kindly, lazily
Adverb of degree	Provides information about the level or intensity of a verb, adjective or another adverb	almost, quite, nearly, too, enough, just, hardly, simply, so
Adverb of place	Provides information about where a verb takes place	here, there, nowhere, everywhere, out, in, above, below, inside, outside, into
Adverb of frequency	Provides information about how often a verb is done	never, always, rarely, sometimes, normally, seldom, usually, again

Using Adverbs with Verbs

Adverbs modify verbs to describe how the action is happening. An adverb usually comes right before or after the verb it modifies.

The adverb, quickly, is used to describe how he ran.

The adverb “carefully” is used to describe how she took out a book.

Both adverbs in the two sentences above, “quickly” and “carefully,” describe how the action was performed. How did he run? How did she take out a book?

Using Adverbs with Adjectives

Adverbs modify adjectives to modify the level of intensity of the adjectives.

The adverb, slightly, is used to modify how late I will be to the party.

The adverb “pretty” is used to modify how well you have done the job. Both adverbs in the two sentences above, “slightly” and “pretty,” modify the adjectives to describe the extent of how something was done.

Using Adverbs with Other Adverbs

Adverbs modify other adverbs to intensify the adverbs. Most of the time, an adverb that modifies another adverb should be placed right before the adverb it modifies.

The adverb “extremely” is used to modify another adverb “quickly.”

The adverb “so” is used to modify another adverb, “fast.” Both adverbs in the two sentences above, “extremely” and “so,” modify the adverbs placed right next to them to describe the extent of the adverbs they modify.

Adverbial Phrases

An adverbial phrase is a group of words that function as an adverb. While an adverb is a single word in many cases, an adverbial phrase consists of more than one word to add more information to a verb, adjective, another adverb, or an entire sentence. An adverbial phrase can function as an adverb even without containing an adverb in the group of words. Adverbial phrases often contain a preposition.

In this sentence, the adverbial phrase “to get some groceries” is used to describe the purpose of going to the store.

In this sentence, the adverbial phrase “over there near the park” is used to describe the place where he parked his car.

Showing Degrees of Comparison

Adverb forms can be changed to show degrees of comparison just as adjective forms are changed (busy, busier, busiest).

Flat adverbs

An adverb that looks the same as its adjective counterpart is called a flat adverb. For a flat adverb, the comparative and superlative forms look the same as the comparative and superlative forms of its adjective counterpart.

Absolute Adverb	Comparative Adverb	Superlative Adverb
fast	faster	fastest
close	closer	closest
hard	harder	hardest
free	freer	freest
right	righter	rightest

Adverbs that ends in -ly

For comparative and superlative forms of adverbs that end in “-ly,” the words more and most are used.

Absolute Adverb	Comparative Adverb	Superlative Adverb
brightly	more brightly	most brightly
clearly	more clearly	most clearly
seriously	more seriously	most seriously
faithfully	more faithfully	most faithfully
promptly	more promptly	most promptly

One-syllable adverbs

For the comparative form of a one-syllable adverb, -er is placed at the end of the root verb form. For the superlative form, -est is used.

Absolute Adverb	Comparative Adverb	Superlative Adverb
long	longer	longest
high	higher	highest
near	nearer	nearest
early	earlier	earliest
wide	wider	widest

Irregular adverb forms

There are also irregular comparative and superlative forms of adverbs.

Absolute Adverb	Comparative Adverb	Superlative Adverb
well	better	best
bad	worse	worst
much	more	most
far	farther	farthest

Adverb Placement

Generally, adverbs should be placed right before or after (or as close as possible) to the words they are supposed to modify.

There are three places where an adverb can be placed:
1)At the very beginning of a sentence 2)Before the main verb 3)After the main verb or at the end of a sentence

In many cases, an adverb can be placed in either of the three places, and it may not affect the meaning of the sentence.

Regardless of where the adverbs “quickly” and “cheerfully” are placed, the meaning of all the sentences remains the same. In this case, the placement of the adverb is merely a stylistic choice.

However, in other cases, misplacing the adverbs can completely change the meaning.

These two sentences have two different meanings. The first sentence means “All I want to do is go to the mall,” and the second sentence means “The only place I want to go is the mall.”

In the first sentence, the adverb “especially” emphasizes the subject “you,” while in the second sentence, the adverb emphasizes the fact that it is her that should be treated nicely. In the third sentence, “especially” modifies the adverb “nicely.”

Because of these potentially ambiguous meanings, it is best to place the adverb right next to the verb it is modifying.

Placing adverbs with intransitive verbs

When an adverb is used with an intransitive verb, in some cases the adverb is placed after the intransitive verb to avoid making the sentence sound awkward.

However, for adverbs of frequency such as never, always, often, rarely, and seldom, the adverbs should always be placed before the intransitive verb.

Common Adverb Mistakes

Adverbs indicating frequency usually go before the main verb.

Adverbs indicating manner usually go at the very end of the sentence.

The adverb enough always goes after the verb it modifies.

Good vs Well

“Good” is an adjective and “well” is an adverb. However, these two words are often misused in many cases.

In academic writing, it is better to avoid using adverbs since they can cause ambiguity and increase word count. Instead of using adverbs, apply one-word verbs that are more powerful and precise.