Adverbs

Linguistic Overview

Adverbs are a large, open lexical class, meaning there are many adverbs in the English dictionary and new adverbs are added all the time. This is especially the case with Adverbs of Manner.

Adverbs and similar modifier phrases are used to express details such as 1) how a verb is carried out; 2) how something is perceived; 3) where something happens; 4) when something happens; 5) a sequence; 6) the extent of a verb or modifier; 7) a purpose; 8) modality; and 9) so much more. Although it may be challenging to identify adverbs as distinct from other modifiers (and other heads of modifier phrases), here we consider lexical adverbs to be one-word terms.

Adverbs are very versatile and can modify almost any other part of a sentence … except for nominals (that’s where adjectives come in). Most commonly, they modify verb phrases, other modifiers, and entire clauses.

Adverbs can be placed in different positions within a sentence. Any adverb’s potential placements are limited by a) the type of adverb, and b) what part of speech they are modifying.

Finally, take note of pro-adverbs, which are shortcuts that are understood based on the context (and which change from one context to the next). Pro-adverbs include some of the most common words in the English language, including ‘here’, ‘there’, ‘now’, ‘then’, and the interrogative/relative terms ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘how’, and ‘why’.

Types of Adverbs

There are a handful of categories that may be used to sort adverbs. However, these categories are not mutually exclusive, meaning that some adverbs may fall into multiple categories. Furthermore, these categories are not comprehensive, meaning they may not account for every adverb in the English lexicon.

Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of Manner express the way in which the action is carried out. They apply to verbs — usually action verbs — but not to other modifiers or to clauses.

The adverbs ‘aloud’, ‘backward’, ‘carefully’, ‘diligently’, ‘inadvertently’, ‘likewise’, ‘mournfully’, ‘passionately’, ‘quickly’, ‘respectfully’, ‘silently’, ‘straight’, ‘together’, and ‘voraciously’ are just a handful of examples out of the many Adverbs of Manner. Adverbs of Manner is perhaps the largest category of adverbs. Most new adverbs that are created, perhaps by converting from a different part of speech, are Adverbs of Manner.

Most of the time the question “How?” is asked, it’s regarding the way the verb is executed. If the answer is not an Adverb of Manner, it is probably an Adverbial Clause or some other modifier phrase.

Adverbs of Assessment

Sometimes, the question “How?” is not about the way in which a verb was done, but about an assessment of a state. This is the case for the common questions “How are you doing?” and “How did _____ go?”, as well as a few particular expressions like “How did you sleep last night?”

Adverbs of Assessment fall on a scale of good to bad and include adverbs like ‘adequately’, ‘alright’, ‘decently’, ‘fine’, ‘okay’, ‘poorly’, ‘satisfactorily’, ‘sufficiently’, ‘swimmingly’, and ‘well’. (Although ‘poorly’ and ‘well’ have traditionally been regarded as correct responses, their counterparts ‘badly’ and ‘good’ are often used as Adverbs of Assessment in casual speech.)

Adverbs of Time/Place

Many Adverbs of Time or of Place tend to behave much like prepositional phrases that can also communicate a setting, except that these adverbs do so in a single word. Here are some examples:

TIME:

Moment: ‘currently’, ‘immediately’, ‘just’, ‘later’, ‘soon’, ‘tomorrow’, ‘yesterday’
Sequence: ‘afterward’, ‘beforehand’, ‘first’, ‘next’, ‘lastly’, ‘since’, ‘subsequently’
Duration: ‘continually’, ‘henceforth’, ‘overnight’, ‘momentarily’, ‘still’, ‘temporarily’

PLACE:

Location (static): ‘above’, ‘downstairs’, ‘home’, ‘indoors’, ‘nearby’, ‘outdoors’, ‘outside’, ‘overboard’, ‘overhead’, ‘underground’, ‘upstairs’, ‘worldwide’
Direction (dynamic): ‘away’, ‘back’, ‘downhill’, ‘downward’, ‘forward’, ‘uphill’, ‘upward’

Some Adverbs of Time are closely associated with certain types of tenses. For example, ‘already’, ‘before’, ‘ever’, ‘just’, ‘never’, and ‘yet’ often accompany Perfect Tenses while ‘always’, ‘currently’, and ‘still’ sometimes accompany Continuous Tenses.

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of Frequency might semantically be considered a subset of Adverbs of Time, but they are considered distinct here both because many TESOL coursebooks give special attention to them at rudimentary levels, and because their placement within the sentence is different from other expressions of time.

Here are some common Adverbs of Frequency, in order from least to most:

‘never‘
Low Frequency: ‘hardly ever‘, ‘rarely‘, ‘seldom‘
Moderate Frequency: ‘occasionally’
High Frequency: ‘frequently’, ‘often’, ‘usually’
‘always’

The term ‘sometimes’ incorporates any degree of frequency between ‘never’ and ‘always’ (exclusively), though some people use it more specifically for moderately frequency.

Furthermore, adverbs such as ‘generally’, ‘normally’, and ‘typically’ aren’t inherently about frequency but can still be used to communicate frequency in many contexts.

Other Adverbs of Frequency are less relative and more absolute, meaning they are tied to specific time periods. For example:

‘hourly’, ‘daily’, ‘weekly’, ‘monthly’, ‘quarterly’, annually’, etc.
‘every [Monday, summer, Christmas, election year, etc.]’

Adverbs of Frequency can be seen as both a subset of Adverbs of Time and a subset of Adverbs of Degree.

Adverbs of Degree

Adverbs of Degree communicate the extent to which a verb is executed or to which a modifier is applicable. They are often used to emphasize a point. Here are some common examples:

Approximators: ‘almost’, ‘barely‘, ‘enough’, ‘nearly’, ‘just’, ‘roughly’, etc.
Intensifiers: ‘absolutely’, ‘completely’, ‘extremely’, ‘far’, ‘highly’, ‘incredibly’, ‘quite’, ‘really’, ‘so’, ‘super’, ‘terribly’, ‘too’, ‘totally’, ‘utterly’, ‘very’, etc.
Diminishers: ‘hardly‘, ‘kinda’, ‘scarcely‘, ‘slightly’, ‘somewhat’, ‘sort of’, etc.

A handful of approximators and intensifiers can be used for modifiers but not for verbs. For instance, one can say “I am very hungry,” but not “~~I very eat.~~“

Adverbs of Degree are generally not compatible with Comparatives and Superlatives (although they may be included in a tongue-in-cheek fashion). Adverbs of degree are also incompatible with non-gradable adjectives.

Some adverbs work as Adverbs of Degree only in terms of expressing the speaker’s opinion or role in the matter. Examples include ‘certainly’, ‘vehemently’, and ‘wholeheartedly’. Since they express the speakers mood, these could also be considered Modal Adverbs.

Discourse Adverbs

Some adverbs modify their entire clauses (or even sets of clauses) by noting their relation to the sentences and the context surrounding them. Some of these adverbs comment on the nature of the topic (domain, focus, and sequence below), while others reflect the position of the speaker (opinion below). Furthermore, some discourse markers known as as Conjunctive Adverbs are used as transitions from the sentences or clauses that came before (focus, logic, opinion, and sequence).

Here are some examples:

Domain: ‘economically’, ‘metaphorically’, ‘socially’, ‘spiritually’, ‘technically’, etc.
Focus: ‘anyway’, ‘incidentally’, ‘otherwise’, ‘regardless’, etc.
Sequence: ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘next’, ‘then’, ‘finally’, etc.
Logic: ‘consequently’, ‘furthermore’, ‘however’, ‘moreover’, ‘naturally’, ‘obviously’, ‘therefore’, etc.
Opinion: ‘actually’, ‘frankly’, ‘fittingly’, ‘fortunately’, ‘surprisingly’, ‘unfortunately’, etc.

While the examples shown here are single words, some of them might instead be used as part of phrases — like ‘first of all’ or ‘surprisingly enough’ or ‘technically speaking’. Such phrases also act as Discourse Adverbs, more-or-less functioning the same way and carrying a related (but often more specific) meaning to their single-word counterparts.

Modal Adverbs can also serve as Discourse Adverbs. Other discourse markers include multi-word phrases like “by the way”, “in any case”, and “as regards to [topic]”, just to name a few.

Pro-Adverbs

Just as pronouns represent specific nouns understood by the context, pro-adverbs represent specific adverbs or adverbial phrases. For instance, the pro-adverb then means “at that time we already specified”, and here means “in this place”.

Demonstrative Pro-Adverbs

Some of the most common pro-adverbs belong to a set of triplets. In the table below, each row represents a triplet (e.g. where, here, and there form one triplet); they may each refer to the same thing within a context, but the difference between them probably depends on the speaker’s perspective. In the first column are terms used for questions and as Relative Linkers; in the second column are things that are near; and in the third column are things that are farther off.

Interrogative¹	Proximal	Distal
when	now	then
where	here	there
why wherefore	herefore	therefore
how whereby³	in this way² hereby³ so	in that way² thereby³ thus
whence⁴	hence³	thence³
whither⁴	hither⁴	thither⁴

Notes:

also Relative
technically not lexical adverbs, but Prepositional Phrases; either way, they are modifiers
rarely used in modern English outside legal text and speech
archaic

Indefinite Pro-Adverbs

Indefinite pro-adverbs are used when the speaker does not know or does not care what they might be referring to in particular, or they might be used to remove any specificity. The most common ones are:

everywhere, somewhere, anywhere, nowhere
always, sometimes, any time, never,
whenever, wherever, however
elsewhere, otherwise

Adverb Placement

Adverbs are perhaps the most fluid lexical class in terms of where they can be placed within a clause. However, there are some patterns we can identify based on what type of adverbs they are and on whether they modify verbs, other modifiers, or entire clauses.

Modifying Verbs

Adverbs that modify verbs usually come in one of three places.

The first is immediately after the leading auxiliary (i.e. the first auxiliary verb in a verb string) but before any other verbs in that verb string, including any other auxiliaries.

e.g.: “The professor has frequently been asked to lecture at several universities.
e.g.: “The professor has apparently been asked to lecture at several universities.
This is the usual placement for Adverbs of Degree, Adverbs of Frequency, and Modal Adverbs.

The second is just before the main verb it modifies, but after any and all auxiliary verbs.

e.g.: “The professor has been politely asked to lecture at several universities.
This is a common placement for Adverbs of Manner.

The third is after its main verb. While they can come immediately after that verb, they might need to contend with other modifiers (like Prepositional Phrases) and predicate arguments (like Direct Objects) for placement, so it’s usually okay to place them a little later.

e.g.: “The guest slept comfortably last night.”
e.g.: “The guest slept well last night.”
e.g.: “The guest slept downstairs last night.”
This is another common placement for Adverbs of Manner.
This is the usual placement for Adverbs of Assessment and Adverbs of Time/Place.

Modifying Modifiers

Adverbs of Degree, Frequency, and Modality can modify other modifiers — whether those modifiers come in the form of adjectives, other adverbs, prepositional phrases, Infinitive or Participial Phrases, or Adverbial Clauses. Such adverbs should almost always come before the modifiers. For example:

“An absolutely hilarious comedian cancelled her show last night.”
“Fido is often under the chair.”
“Mom went to the store presumably to pick up some milk.”

However, there are some exceptions. Notably, the adverb ‘enough’ should come after the modifier.

Modifying Clauses

Sometimes, an adverb may come at the very beginning or verb end of a clause to modify that entire clause (or the full sentence). These are usually Modal Adverbs or Discourse Adverbs, though they can also be Adverbs of Degree, Frequency, or Time.

Discourse Adverbs should come at the beginning if they are used to as a transition from the clause that came before it. The adverbs ‘anyway’, ‘however’, ‘second’, and ‘therefore’ are a few examples that almost always come at the beginning. In more erudite speech, transition words might instead come between the subject and the predicate (as in “I, therefore, have taken steps to resolve the matter.”) or after the subject and leading auxiliary of that clause (as in “I have, therefore, taken steps to resolve the matter.”), though this is rare in modern speech.

Discourse Adverbs should generally be separated from the rest of their clauses by commas (when written) or brief pauses (when spoken aloud).

Some Adverb Forms

There is no standard form for all adverbs. However, there are some forms that are either specific to or common among adverbs, even if they don’t apply to every adverb.

Suffixes for Adverbs

-ly Adverbs

The vast majority of adverbs are rooted in adjectives and have an -ly suffix. In fact, virtually any adjective of quality (subjective adjectives) can be turned into an adverb by adding the -ly suffix. For example, the adjectives ‘curious’, ’embarrassing’, and ‘unusual’ correlate to the adverbs ‘curiously’, ’embarrassingly’, and ‘unusually’, respectively. -ly adverbs carry the same meaning as their original adjectives but can instead modify other words besides nouns.

Flat Adverbs

Flat Adverbs are adverbs that are identical in form to the adjectives they are rooted in; they do not have the -ly suffix. There are only a handful of broadly-accepted Flat Adverbs, including ‘bright’, ‘close’, ‘far’, ‘fast’, ‘hard’, ‘long’, ‘right’, and ‘tight’. ‘Early’ is another Flat Adverb, as its adjective form already ends in -ly (not a suffix). Additionally, there are some Flat Adverbs that only work in certain expressions, like “dress smart” or “drive safe” (compared to “smartly consider” or “safely continue”). Furthermore, some terms might work as Flat Adverbs in some dialects while requiring an -ly in others.

Some sequence terms like ‘first’/’firstly’, ‘second’/’secondly’, ‘last’/lastly’, etc. can be either Flat Adverbs or -ly adverbs.

-ward, -ways, & -wise Adverbs

Noun roots can take on the -ward, -ways, or -wise suffixes to become adverbs.

Words ending in -ward (like ‘homeward’, ‘westward’, ‘skyward’, etc.) are usually dynamic Adverbs of Place in which the root noun is the destination.
Words ending in -ways (like ‘leastways’, ‘sideways’, etc.) or -wise (like ‘clockwise’, ‘lengthwise’, ‘likewise’, etc.) are usually either Adverbs of Manner or Discourse Adverbs.

Comparative & Superlative

Adverbs have Comparative and Superlative forms similar to adjectives. The Comparative forms are usually “more [adverb]” or “less [adverb]”, and the Superlative forms are usually “the most [adverb]” or “the least [adverb]”. Comparative and Superlative adverbs that modify verbs typically come after those verbs; but those that modify adjectives and other modifiers typically come before those modifiers.

Here are a few notes about Comparatives and Superlatives that are specific to adverbs:

Adverbs of Manner, dynamic Adverbs of Time/Place, and Adverbs of Frequency can all take Comparative or Superlative forms, while Adverbs of Degree, Modal Adverbs, and Discourse Adverbs generally cannot.
For Adverbs of Assessment, the Comparative or Superlative forms are simply ‘worst’, ‘worse’, ‘better’, and ‘best’.
There are so few single-syllable adverbs, but the few that exist — including Flat Adverbs — take the -er or -est forms (as in “brighter” or “the fastest“).

Negators

Negators are adverbs that make their verb phrases negative. Grammatically, negation is important with questions and answers (and is particularly important with Question Tags) and with echoes and parity (with statements like “Me, neither!” or “Nor does she,” or interrogatives like “You didn’t?”)

The most common negator is not, which is also the most versatile, especially because it can be contracted as n’t and affixed to a leading auxiliary.
The time expressions never, hardly ever, rarely, seldom, and no longer can also be used as negators.
The adverbs of minimal extent barely, hardly, and scarcely often act as negators.
The adverb neither and its related correlative conjunction neither … nor are negators.

The terms barely, hardly (ever), rarely, seldom, and scarcely are not pure negators in the semantic sense, since they mean ‘almost not’. However, from a grammatical standpoint, they are usually treated the same as pure negators like not and never.

Negators are almost always placed immediately after the leading auxiliary.

Advanced Concepts

More Adverbial Modifiers

As a lexical class, adverbs are generally considered to be single words. However, there are also a few types of phrases that overlap with adverbs in both their purpose and in how they’re used in a sentence:

Prepositional Phrases
- modify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and clauses
- express manner, setting, amount, purpose, and more
Participial Phrases
- modify nouns, verbs, and clauses
- express manner or circumstance
Infinitive Phrases
- modify verbs and clauses
- express purpose
Adverbial Clauses
- modify nouns, verbs, and clauses
- express manner, setting, extent, logic, circumstance, and more

When considering adverbs, it’s often wise to consider these other adverbial modifiers as well.

Lexical Overlaps

Just as adverbs, prepositional phrases, and Adverbial Clauses serve a similar function, … adverbs, adpositions (the heads of prepositional phrases), and Subordinating Conjunctions (the heads of Adverbial Clauses) have specific terms in common.

There are a handful of terms that can apply to 2 or even all 3 of those lexical categories. Consider the word ‘before’:

as an adverb: “I’ve seen that trick before.”
as a preposition: “I saw that trick before this performance.”
as a subordinator: “I saw that trick before the magician performed it.”

One could argue that the first example features a truncated prepositional phrase meaning before now, but ‘now’ doesn’t need to be stated because it is understood. In that case, where do we draw the line between an adverb and an adposition? Linguists consider many questions such as this one, making adverbs a difficult word class to define.

Educators should be aware of the connections among adverbs, adpositions, and subordinators, not necessarily for the sake of linguistic debates, but to see how easily one type of modifier can be transformed into another type, which a speaker may choose to do in order to change the level of detail or to alter the flow of a sentence.

English Grammar Encyclopedia for Educators