There are many types of adverbs and adverb phrases. This page will
introduce some of the basic types of adverbs and their functions.
What is an adverb?
Basically, most adverbs tell you how, where, or when something is done.
In other words, they describe the manner, place, or time
of an action. Here are some examples:
| Type |
Adverb |
Example |
| Manner |
slowly |
Jane
drives slowly. |
| Place |
here |
The party
is going to take place here. |
| Time |
yesterday |
I called
him yesterday. |
How to recognize an adverb
Many adverbs end with the suffix -LY. Most of these are created by
adding -LY to the end of an adjective, like this:
| Adjective |
Adverb |
| slow |
slowly |
| delightful |
delightfully |
| hopeless |
hopelessly |
| aggressive |
aggressively |
However, this is NOT a reliable way to find out whether a word is an
adverb or not, for two reasons: many adverbs do NOT end in -LY (some are
the same as the adjective form), and many words which are NOT adverbs DO
end in -LY (such as kindly, friendly, elderly and lonely,
which are adjectives). Here are some examples of adverbs which are the
same as adjectives:
| Adjective |
Adverb |
| fast |
fast |
| late |
late |
| early |
early |
The best way to tell if a word is an adverb is to try making a
question, for which the answer is the word. If the question uses how,
where or when, then the word is probably an adverb. Here
is an example:
| Word in
context |
Question |
Adverb? |
| Junko plays
tennis aggressively. |
How
does Junko play tennis? |
Yes --
uses HOW. |
| They have a small
house. |
What kind
of house do they have? |
No --
uses WHAT KIND OF, so this is an adjective. |
| Matthew
called the police immediately. |
When
did Matthew call the police? |
Yes --
uses WHEN. |
|
Adverbs
