Adverbs

• Formation
• Position
• Related topics

Formation

1. Most adverbs are formed from the adjective. One adds the ending "--ly" to the adjectival form:

• intelligent --> intelligently
• slow --> slowly
• precise --> precisely

Some adverbs are irregular:

A. If the adjective ends with "--le," simply replace the "e" with "y":

• simple --> simply
• subtle --> subtly

B. The adverb corresponding to the adjective "good" is irregular:

• good --> well

C. Some adverbs have the same form as the adjective:

• high
• low
• hard
• better
• fast

D. In general, adverbs of time and space have no corresponding adjective; the same can be said of adverbs of quantity:

• yesterday
• today
• tomorrow
• early
• soon
• late
• here
• there
• less
• more
• as
• very
• much
• a lot of
• little of

Position

When an adverb modifies a verb, it generally comes at the end of the clause (but before any prepositional phrases or subordinated clauses):

• He writes poorly.
• She pronounced that word well..
• Joseph worked diligently.
• They worked hard before coming home.

  Exceptions: certain adverbs signaling the speaker's opinion, such as "probably," "undoubtedly," "surely," "certainly," etc., come at the beginning of the sentence, or else between the modal verb (or auxiliary) and the principal verb:

  • We are probably going to spend the summer in Corsica.
  • Certainly we would never do that!
  • We will undoubtedly see a dirty political campaign this year.

Adverbs of time and space generally come at the end of the sentence; however, they may be placed at the beginning of the sentence if the predicate clause is long and complicated:

• I saw her yesterday.
• We're going to the beach today.
• She went to bed very early.
• Tomorrow we will try to get up early to prepare for our trip.

Adverbs modifying adjectives or an other adverb are placed before the adjective or adverb they modify:

• She was really very happy to see you.
• It was a brilliantly staged performance.

Related topics

• Comparatives
• Superlatives

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