This week, we’re going to talk about some commonproblems with adverbs. Basically, adverbs are wordsthat describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Forexample, "I ran quickly to the store." The adverb quicklydescribes the verb run.
What is an adverb?
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| Everyday Grammar: Beating Problems with Adverbs |
If a word is not easy to classify as a noun, verb, or adjective, it is probably anadverb. Some of the most common words in English are adverbs, includingup, so, just, then, how, now, also, here, and more.
Adverbs usually describe verbs. They express when, how, where, and why anaction is done. Many adverbs are easy to find because they have the –lyending, such as quickly, surely, and certainly. However, many adverbs do nothave the –ly ending.
Adverbs can also describe adjectives. For example, "It is really cold today." In this example, really is an adverb that describes the adjective cold.
Adverbs can describe other adverbs. For example, "I will probably never goback." Here, the adverb probably describes the adverb never.
Where do you put the adverb?
Where do adverbs go in a sentence? Well, it depends.
Some adverbs can go almost anywhere in a sentence. Let us look at theadverb sometimes. It can go at the beginning of the sentence as in, "Sometimes, I walk to work." It can go after the subject: "I sometimes walk towork." Or it can go at the end of the sentence: "I walk to work sometimes."
Other adverbs can only go in the middle of a sentence. The adverb probably is an example. "She will probably leave early."
It is incorrect to say, "Probably she will leave early" or "She will leave earlyprobably." Other such adverbs are never, rarely, seldom, and always. Theseare called mid-sentence adverbs. They usually go between the subject and the main verb. Different types of adverbs have different sentence positions.
What's the difference between adverbs and adjectives?
Adjectives describe nouns, while adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, andother adverbs. Take the sentence, "She is careful." The adjective careful isdescribing the noun she. But if you said, "She walks carefully," the adverbcarefully is describing the verb walk.
Do you think this is hard? Hardly!
Native speakers sometimes confuse adverbs and adjectives.
The words hard and hardly are especially difficult. Hard is both an adjectiveand an adverb. You can say "The bed was hard," using the adjective, whichmeans it is "very firm." You can also say, "I worked hard," using the adverb,which means "with a lot of effort."
Hardly is an adverb. A long time ago, it meant "in a hard manner," but itsmeaning has changed. People used to say "not hardly.” Over time, the word“not” disappeared. Since the 1500s, hardly has meant "almost not" or "barely." For example, "I hardly had time to finish the project." This conflicting meaningof hard and hardly has become the basis for jokes.
Listen to cartoon character Homer Simpson playing with the confusionbetween hard and hardly. In the scene, Homer’s co-workers are replaced withrobots.
"So you guys are my new co-workers. So working hard or hardlyworking? (laugh). I said, ‘Working hard or hardly working?’ ‘Workinghard or hardly working? WORKING HARD OR HARDLYWORKING?’ IT’S A SIMPLE QUESTION!"
Homer is asking the robots if they are working hard (working with energy) orhardly working (only working a little). The robots, with their exact reasoning, donot understand the word play in the question.
We will leave you with a song that uses the adverb softly in an unexpectedway. Listen to the Fugees’ version of the classic song "Killing Me Softly withHis Song."
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
I’m Jonathan Evans.
And I’m Ashley Thompson.
See this excellent reference on adjectives and adverbs from Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab.
Adam Brock wrote and produced this story. Dr. Jill Robbins edited it.
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Words in This Story
adverb - gramm. term. a word that describes a verb, an adjective, anotheradverb, or a sentence and that is often used to show time, manner, place, ordegree
adjective- gramm. term. a word that describes a noun or a pronoun
classify– v. to consider (someone or something) as belonging to a particulargroup
word play– n. playful or clever use of words
