Adverbs in English

Types of adverb and how they are used

Subject index:

Adverb positions

Categories and functions of adverbs

Adverbs related to adjectives

Adverbs unrelated to adjectives

1. Position of adverbs in the sentence - how to place adverbs correctly

To avoid ambiguity, or even nonsense, adverbs need to be put in the right place in an English sentence. This is not as complicated as is sometimes suggested!

The position of simple adverbs depends on two main factors:

1. What the adverb is modifying (is it attached to a verb, an adjective, or another adverb?)
2. The type of adverb (frequency, manner, degree, time, or place).

Situation A. Adverbs modifying adjectives or other adverbs

When a simple adverb of any type modifies an adjective, a participle, or another adverb, it is placed directly before the word it modifies:
(Exception: The adverb enough always follows the word it modifies: "clever enough").  See enough.

Situation B. Adverbs modifying verbs
When simple adverbs modify verbs, their position depends on their function:

Adverbs of frequency, indefinite time, and degree.
Adverbs of frequency (always, often, rarely, never), indefinite time (already, soon, just), and degree (nearly, almost) typically come before a simple verb, after the main verb be, or in the middle of a multi-verb structure.

Adverbs of manner place and definite time
Adverbs of manner (slowly, well, unexpectedly), place (there, outside), and definite time (yesterday, today) naturally sit after the verb or its direct object - though they may come before the verb in some cases.

Special emphasis
For Emphasis or to set a scene, adverbs of time, sequence, or place can be used at the start of a sentence to create stylistic focus or background:

2.1.  Categories and types of adverb:

Many grammars and manuals of syntax suggest that there are a lot of different categories of adverb; but that is to complicate a situation that is really quite simple.
    There are  two main categories of adverb:

1. Adverbs related to or derived from  adjectives or prepositions
2. Adverbs unrelated to adjectives or prepositions.

Adverbs from either category may fulfil identical functions in the sentence.

Each category includes adverbs of four main types: time, place, manner and degree.

For particular questions concerning adverbs of degree like very, enough, so, that and too, see Adverbs of degree .
To understand how "sentence adverbs" (see below) such as therefore or thus are adverbs like the others (and not conjunctions), just consider that therefore is a synonym of consequently, and that thus can be a synonym of accordingly.

2.2. Function  of adverbs:

Whereas adjectives are used to qualify a noun, adverbs are used to qualify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.  Some adverbs - called "sentence adverbs" - can also qualify a whole sentence (see below).
Here are some examples of adverbs.

3. Adverbs related to adjectives

Most adverbs in English are related to adjectives; for example high (adjective)  and highly (adverb).

Adjectives	Adverbs
Qualifying a noun	qualifying a verb	qualifying an adjective
a high mountain	I think highly of you	That is highly improbable
A real surprise	He really likes you	You are really nice.
A fast train	It went very fast	This is a fast moving situation.
In actual fact	I actually laughed
A bitter disappointment	I bitterly regret saying that.	A bitterly cold day
Extreme sports		I'm extremely busy

2.1 Formation of adverbs:
As the examples above show, many adverbs are formed by adding the ending -ly to an adjective. Adverbs can be formed from many adjectives in this manner; that includes many participles.
There are a few exceptions to this principle:

3.2 Adjectives and adverbs with identical forms

Here are the eight most common adjective/adverb pairs that share identical forms :

Adjectives	Adverbs	Notes:
A fast train	It went very fast
A hard day	I'm working hard	hardly also exists - but the meaning is different
A late reply	He's working late.	lately also exists - but the meaning is different
A long day	I long thought he'd never return.	long, adverb, has the meaning of for a long time
the Daily Express	We check it daily.
A monthly bill	I pay it monthly
The wrong answer	We went wrong.	wrongly also exists - but usage depends on context
The next day	Who's going next ?

3.3 Comparatives and superlatives:

Adjective and adverbial forms are also identical when adjectives are in a comparative or superlative form  – unless this is formed with more or most:


A few adverbs are formed by adding the endings -ward(s) or -wise to nouns or prepositions:

• clockwise ,  anti-clockwise,     inwards,  upwards,  skywards   etc.

Finally, note that the normal adverb corresponding to the adjective good is well, not goodly.

4. Adverbs unrelated to adjectives

There are many common adverbs in English that are not related to adjectives; they can be found in all four types, as illustrated above.  These adverbs include some important groups:

• Several common adverbs of frequency: sometimes, seldom, often etc.
• Several common adverbs of degree : quite, very, too, enough
• A number of "Sentence adverbs" , which qualify whole clauses or sentences. (see part 4 below)

While these adverbs are themselves unrelated to adjectives, they often have synonyms that are formed from adjectives.
Important: note that enough, as an adverb of degree, follows the adjective it is qualifying. For more on this see enough

5. Sentence adverbs 

Adverbs qualifying a whole clause or a whole sentence

Some adverbs can apply (or in some cases only apply)  to a whole sentence or statement.
These can be

• adverbs formed from adjectives, such as consequently, possibly,  clearly, naturally, obviously, surprisingly, fortunately, 
•  other modal adverbs such as maybe, even, just,or
• conjunctive adverbs such as  therefore, perhaps, so, nevertheless, also...  For more on this see Conjunctive adverbs.

To understand how  adverbs such as therefore or maybe are adverbs like the others, just consider that therefore is a synonym of consequently, or maybe can be a synonym of possibly.  These sentence adverbs are not conjunctions (like but and for or as), since conjunctions must come at the start of their clause; sentence adverbs may have more than one possible position in the clause.


► Going further: See here for the position of adverbs in the sentence.