Adverbs
Adverbs are words that modify adjectives or verbs. These can add much depth to your sentences and allow you to express yourself more clearly. Japanese has 3 types of adverbs.
Stand-Alone Adverbs
Stand-alone adverbs are very simple. You simply add them somewhere before the verb without a postposition. Here are some stand-alone adverbs.
kyou = today totemo = very
ashita = tomarow itsuka = someday
mata = again chotto = a bit
He's going to a meeting tomarow.
The subject is "he" which translates as "ano hito" and we add "wa" after it. "Tomarow" is translated as "ashita" and we add no postposition after it. We translate "to a meeting" as "kaigi ni." Lastly, we add our verb. "Is going to go" is translated as "iku."
Ano hito wa ashita kaigi ni iku.
Watashi wa kyou gakkou ni iku.
"Watashi" is our subject since it is followed by "wa." Our verb "iku" is best translated as "am going to go" in this case. "Gakkou ni" translates to "to school." Lastly, we translate our adverb "kyou" which means "today." In all this translates to
I am going to go to school today.
NI Adverbs
This kind of adverb is made from taking an NA adjective and adding the postposition "ni" after it. Many times the "ni" is dropped, though. Here's some more vocab.
hijou ni = extremely
hontou ni = really
Sushi wa hijou ni oishii!
The subject of this sentence is "sushi" which translates as "sushi." "Hijou ni" translates to "extremely" and "oishii" means "delicious" or "good (taste)." So this translates to
Sushi is extremely good!
Mrs. Suzuki is truely nice.
The subject here is "Mrs. Suzuki." Since, it's a name, we add on "-san" after it and add "wa" because it's the subject. "Truely" is "hontou ni" in Japanese. Now I hope you've been learning from the previous lessons. "Nice" is "shinsetsu" in Japanese and it's an NA adjective. Since it's an NA adjective, we have to add the copula "da" after it to give it meaning. So in all, our sentence becomes
Suzuki-san wa hontou ni shinsetsu da.
Ku Adverbs
Ku adjectives are actually made from I adjectives. You can remove the final "-i" off of any I adjective and add "-ku" to make it an adverb. This is similar to English's "-ly." For example, "hayai" means "fast" or "quick" in Japanese. "Hayaku" means "quickly." These adverbs are not followed by a postposition. This form is also useful later when we start conjugating verbs and adjectives.
hayaku = quickly osoku = slowly
ureshiku = happily kanashiku = sadly
aruku= to walk hashiru = to run
Watashi-tachi wa osoku gakkou e aruku.
The subject of the sentece is "watashi-tachi" which translates to "we" in English. Then we have an adverb, "osoku." "Osoku" comes from the verb "osoi" which means "slow." So it translates as "slowly." "Gakkou e" translates to "to school" and "aruku" translates to "walk." So this long sentence translates as
We walked slowly to school.
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