What is an Adverb? Definition and Examples of Adverbs in Sentences

Some adverbs can also modify a phrase, a clause or a whole sentence. While most adverbs are easy to spot because they end in -ly, others are a bit trickier to find. Learn more about adverbs and how they’re used in different sentences. However, in the sentence, “The sprinter took the bendfast,” the word fast modifies the verb took and is, therefore, an adverb.

• When adverbs modify, they tell when, where, how, and to what extent something occurs.
• The phrase a heavy metal detectorrefers to a metal detector that is heavy in weight.
• As versatile words that help describe situations and events more vividly, adverbs add nuance and detail to a narrative.
• ” Very, then, must be a word modifying the color blue, not the bird itself.
• A conjunctive adverb may begin a sentence and is often followed by a comma.
• This function is called theadverbialfunction, and may be realized by single words or by multi-word expressions .
• Examples of such adverbs in English includehere, there, together, yesterday, aboard, very, almost, etc.

When it comes to verbs, you need to be very careful about a particular type of verb known as a linking verb. Linking verbs are often used to link a noun or pronoun with a subject complement. Adverbs are NOT used to modify nouns or pronouns, and they are NOT used as subject complements.

Avoiding Double Negatives

When adverbs modify, they tell when, where, how, and to what extent something occurs. “Nearly” is an adverb modifying the adverb “always.” This adverb along with the adverb “always” modifies the extent to which “I” agree with the newspaper. There are many different words that function as adverbs. The following list is broken down into segments which list adverbs by function. After reading, you will be able to think of additional adverbs to add to your own list – after all, there are thousands. Adverbs of purpose examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification. Adverbs of place examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

Adverbs of time examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification. Adverbs of time, while seemingly similar to adverbs of frequency, tell us when something happens. Adverbs of time are usually placed at the end of a sentence.

Past Continuous Verb Tense: Yes/No Questions

But “feel” isn’t just any verb; it’s a linking verb. An adverb would describe how you perform the action of feeling—an adjective describes what you feel. “I feel badly” means that you are bad at feeling things.

When an adverb is modifying an adjective it is saying something about the adjective in the sentence, often adding clarification or intensity. The adverb is normally as close as possible to the adjective in a sentence, and often uses intensifying words like more, least, or hardly. A noun is a person, https://simple-accounting.org/ place, or thing, so the word plane is the noun in this sentence. Now, we look to see if there are any words in the sentence that tell us more about the plane. The word silver tells us the color of the plane, adding meaning and clarification, so we know that it modifies the word plane.

Common English Word Mistakes Everyone Makes

Some describe adverbs a “catch-all” category that includes all words that do not belong to one of the other parts of speech. Different types of adverbs provide different types of information. When your verb or adjective doesn’t seem strong or clear enough, instead of reaching for an adverb to add more color, try looking for a stronger adjective or verb instead. Most of the time, you will come up with a much better word, and your writing will be stronger for it.

If I say the book is more interesting, I’m using the adverb more to modify the word interesting. We see that the plane landed, and we know landed is a verb or action word. The word softly tells us more about how the plane landed, so it is a modifier. Since landed is a verb, we know the modifier has to be an adverb. Adverbs that modify other adverbs must go directly before the adverbs they modify. Ø When using negative adverbs, be careful to avoid a double negative.

What Is the Definition of an “Adverb”?

But adverbs can enrich or clarify adjectives, making them increasingly clearer and more precise to understand. Often, adverbs function as intensifiers to strengthen the meaning of an adjective to the reader. Adverbs are most commonly found to modify verbs in a sentence. It denotes why, how, where, when, how often, and to what extent an action is carried out. When you see one adverb modifying another, you’ve found an adverbial phrase. These phrases are helpful in making your word choice specific and descriptive. At one time, the use of the word hopefully as a sentence adverb (e.g., Hopefully, I’ll get this job) was condemned.

The positions of adverbs are not a fixed or set thing. As you have seen, adverbs can appear in different position in a sentence. However, there are some rules that help us decide where an adverb should be positioned. The rules will be different depending on whether the adverb is acting to modify an adjective or another adverb, a verb or what type of adverb it is. Many times, adverbs of place can be used as prepositions as well.

When an adverb is placed before another adverb, it changes its meaning. In this part What Does the Adverb Modify? Adverb Usage and Examples of the article, we will see an example of an adverb modifying another adverb.

Two sets of adverbs and adjectives that are often used erroneously are good and well and bad and badly. The problem people usually have with these two words is that the adverb forms are often used in place of the adjective forms or vice versa. We can use them to modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or entire sentences. Adverbs often tell us how, when, where, why, how often, or to what degree that something happens. Though we often speak of adverbs as single words, phrases and clauses can also function as adverbs. For example, in the sentence, “He writes with his left hand,” with his left handis an adverbial phrase because it modifies the verbwrites. And in the sentence, “He reads after his family has gone to bed,”after his family has gone to bedis an adverbial clause because it modifies the verbreads.