adverbs

Adverbs

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, other adverb, determiner, noun phrase, clause, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent?. This function is called the adverbial function, and may be realised by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word expressions (adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses).

Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts of speech. However, modern linguists note that it has come to be used as a kind of "catch-all" category, used to classify words with various different types of syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective, preposition, etc.)

Example :

 

Functions

The English word adverb derives (through French) from Latin adverbium, from ad- ("to"), verbum ("word", "verb"), and the nominal suffix -ium. The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs or verb phrases.^[1] An adverb used in this way may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Some examples:

• She sang loudly (loudly modifies the verb sang, indicating the manner of singing)
• We left it here (here modifies the verb phrase left it, indicating place)
• I worked yesterday (yesterday modifies the verb worked, indicating time)
• You often make mistakes (often modifies the verb phrase make mistakes, indicating frequency)
• He undoubtedly did it (undoubtedly modifies the verb phrase did it, indicating certainty)

Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples:

• You are quite right (the adverb quite modifies the adjective right)
• She sang very loudly (the adverb very modifies another adverb – loudly)

They can also modify noun phrases, prepositional phrases,^[1] or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples:

• I bought only the fruit (only modifies the noun phrase the fruit)
• She drove us almost to the station (almost modifies the prepositional phrase to the station)
• Certainly we need to act (certainly modifies the sentence as a whole)

Adverbs are thus seen to perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major exception is the function of modifier of nouns, which is performed instead by adjectives (compare she sang loudly with her loud singing disturbed me; here the verb sang is modified by the adverb loudly, whereas the noun singing is modified by the adjective loud). However, as seen above, adverbs may modify noun phrases, and so the two functions may sometimes be superficially very similar:

• Even camels need to drink
• Even numbers are divisible by two

The word even in the first sentence is an adverb, since it is an "external" modifier, modifying camels as a noun phrase (compare even these camels ...), whereas the word even in the second sentence is an adjective, since it is an "internal" modifier, modifying numbers as a noun (compare these even numbers ...). It is nonetheless possible for certain adverbs to modify a noun; in English the adverb follows the noun in such cases,^[1] as in:

• The people here are friendly
• The show features dances galore
• There is a shortage internationally of protein for animal feeds

Adverbs can sometimes be used as predicative expressions; in English this applies especially to adverbs of location:

• Your seat is there.

When the function of an adverb is performed by an expression consisting of more than one word, it is called an adverbial phrase or adverbial clause, or simply an adverbial.

ADVERBS              

Adverbs are traditionally defined as words that describe verbs.            

Adverbs answer any of the following questions about verbs:

how?    when?    where?     why?

                         

                       

The following examples illustrate adverbs modifying verbs:

How did he lift the barbell?

Easily is an adverb.

When will we use it?

Tomorrow functions as an adverb.

Where did she hide the key?

Nearby is an adverb.

     

         

Adverbs are the most moveable of all parts of speech; therefore, it is sometimes difficult to identify an adverb on the basis of its position in a sentence.

For example, the adverb slowly will fit into three places in the sentence     He climbed the ladder:

                            

   

                 

Most adverbs end in -ly.  In fact, most adverbs are formed by adding -ly to adjectives:

               

                

Like adjectives of more than one syllable, adverbs usually become comparative and superlative by using more and most.

Examples:

                                 

  

                 

Flat adverbs

                

Adjectives that do not change form (add -ly) to become adverbs are called "flat adverbs."

                   

Typical flat adverbs are early, late, hard, fast, long, high, low, deep, near.

                 

To determine whether these words are functioning as adjectives or adverbs, one must determine

1)  what the word is describing (noun or verb)

2)  what question the word is answering

The following examples illustrate the distinction.

Early as adjective:

Early describes the noun train and answers the question "which one?"

Early as adverb:

Early describes the verb arrived and answers the question "when?"

Hard as adjective:

Hard describes the noun pass and answers the question "what kind?"

Hard as adverb:

Hard describes the verb threw and answers the question "how?"