Unit 01: English Adverbs

Adverbs

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. An adverb "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man ranquickly). But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works very well).

Many different kinds of word are called adverbs. We can usually recognise an adverb by its:

1. Function (Job)
2. Form
3. Position

1. Function

The principal job of an adverb is to modify (give more information about) verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the word that it modifies is in italics.

* Modify a verb:
- John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)
- Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)
- She never smokes. (When does she smoke?)

* Modify an adjective:
- He is reallyhandsome.

* Modify another adverb:
- She drives incrediblyslowly.

But adverbs have other functions, too. They can:

* Modify a whole sentence:
- Obviously, I can't know everything.

* Modify a prepositional phrase:
- It's immediatelyinside the door.

2. Form

Many adverbs end in -ly. We form such adverbs by adding -ly to the adjective. Here are some examples:

* quickly, softly, strongly, honestly, interestingly

But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. "Friendly", for example, is an adjective.

Some adverbs have no particular form, for example:

* well, fast, very, never, always, often, still

3. Position

Adverbs have three main positions in the sentence:

* Front (before the subject):
- Now we will study adverbs.

* Middle (between the subject and the main verb):
- We often study adverbs.

* End (after the verb or object):
- We study adverbs carefully.

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