3 ways to use adverbs

"He moved rather slowly for a young man. Too quickly, his life was snuffed out. A bright,

colorful" -- hello. You like my story? I'm James. This is Yngwie. There were many, many

adverbs used. For some of you, you would say, "No, we were adjectives because you said 'bright,

colorful,' this and that." But in English, what a lot of people don't know -- well, beginner

students usually know -- they know adverbs modify verbs, and nouns are modified by adjectives.

And this is completely true. But the adverb is a canny beast -- strange, in other words

-- because it has more than one function. Today, what I want to teach you are the three

functions of the adverb. You might be surprised, and some of you might know it, but you never

know. Stick around for the ride. It'll happen rather quickly, yet painlessly. Let's go to

the board, okay? I just used one on you. I hope you catch it. Come back to the beginning

and check.

Okay, so we look at adverb. The very word says "add," so you put something to a verb,

right? And this is action. "Run, worm, run!" See, the worm's running for his life. He's

running quickly, yeah? So "running quickly" -- this is where we're going to start. We

have action plus the verb, adverb. Adverbs usually follow verbs. "Run quickly," okay?

Now what do they modify? Well, they modify verbs. They can also modify adjectives, which

work with nouns, and they can modify other adverbs to give you -- well, give you what?

Well, when they modify verbs, they help us tell us where, how, and when, okay? Get that

again. When an adverb modifies a verb, it tells us where, how, and when. How is that

verb acting? When is it acting, right? When an adverb modifies an adjective, it intensifies

it. It brings intensity, right? "The brightly colored jacket." "The brightly colored jacket."

Because the jacket is bright, we know, but it's "brightly colored." So more intense,

more powerful. And then with adverbs, it also brings emphasis. "Too quickly, he spoke to

me." "Rather sorridly." I can't even say it, okay? "He looked at me rather stupidly when

I asked the question." "Only I speak like this, Shakespeare and Mr. E." It's kind of

embarrassing. There's only three of us, but you're here to learn English. I'm going to

teach it. So I've showed you an adverb will either

tell us where, how, or when. It will be used for emphasis with an adverb, and it can be

used to intensify an adjective, give the noun more color, more feeling, more flavor. But

let's get a little bit more deeply, okay? So we're going to move from here, and we're

going to go over here and look at verbs. Adverbs usually follow verbs, okay? So when we talk

about where, "look inside." "Inside" comes after the verb. "Look around" or "look everywhere."

City TV in Canada is everywhere. So these follow the verb. When we talk about how, "He

quickly closed the door." I'm sorry. "He closed the door quickly." "He spoke calmly." This

is how they do it. And when. I know you hear all the time, "yesterday" and "today" and

"tomorrow," and probably someone hasn't thrown out or told you their adverbs because it tells

you when. "When did he do the work?" "He did the work yesterday." That's "when" -- work.

We're talking about work. They're related, yeah? Or "tomorrow." "I'll go tomorrow." Notice

how it follows the rule. It comes after. Now, sometimes, when we deal with verbs, it comes

before. And this is when we talk about frequency, like how often you do something because that

is kind of like a "when" situation. It's a "when" situation. So for instance, if you

go to the gym -- sorry. Now, I'm embarrassed. Let me just put my coat on, okay? A little

muscular James. No. Okay. Skinny James, Dames Dean, okay? So when you say, "When you go

to the gym," you might say, "Do you always go?" "Usually go" or "often." Well, in this

case, we have to change the rule a little bit. We're going to change it. It doesn't

follow the verb. It comes before the verb. So adverbs of frequency come before the verb.

I like to talk about the seven sisters. In culture in America, we got, like, "Yo, brother,"

"my brother," "my mother," you know? And we talk about the sisters. And the sisters are

the following. If I teach you, please remember -- and you'll never forget this -- the seven

sisters tell us frequency, how often. They go from zero to 100, like my girlfriend's

temper. She'll be soft and crazy. Zero to 100, okay? In six seconds. Seven seconds.

The seven sisters are the -- these words are usually used. Now, there's a star here I'll

explain after. But generally put, if you remember this, you'll remember the seven sisters of

adverb frequency. "Always" and "never" are opposites. You always do it or you never do

it. 100 to zero. "Sometimes" is 50 percent. But "sometimes" and "seldom" go together because

they both start with S. Seven sisters sometimes seldom. Got it? Always never, sometimes seldom.

Now, you know four, okay? Crazy, but it works. Okay?

And the other ones are usually, often, or rarely. "Rarely" means almost never. Here's

a special note. People seldom say "seldom". They only usually say "rarely". But if you

look at many grammar texts, they'll have "seldom" in there, so I need to teach it to you because

you'll get confused. But "seldom" is more than "rarely" because "rarely" means like

maybe once in a lifetime. "Seldom" means more like five, six times. And then we go up from

there, okay? So this is how an adverb is a text of verb. It tells us where, how, or when.

And when we use it for frequency, remember to switch it. Put the adverb of frequency

before the verb, okay? Usually go, not go usually.

Moving on. Just so you know, "ly" is the most common adverb form. "Quickly", "normally",

"regularly", "habitually". They add "ly" because we are so lazy. Careful, though. Some adjectives

have "ly", right? But generally, "ly" is for adverbs, most common ending.

Let's move over to adjectives because you're probably thinking adverbs are with verbs,

and here I'm talking about this adjective. This is crazy. Not really. This is why we

talk about intensities, to bring intensity to an adjective, okay? If you have a colored

coat, I might say, "How was it?" You say, "A brightly colored coat." I get an explosion

of light in my -- the way I see it, like bright yellow, bright blue, right? So we say something

-- or "very". And "very" is very common. Sorry, "very" is very common.

When someone says, "The food is very hot," right? Or, "It's very cold." "Cold" is an

adjective. How cold is it? What is the intensity of cold or hot? We say "very". So here's one

or actually two ways in which we use adverbs to modify adjectives to give us more of an

experience, like life, right? "The soup was very hot, but it was very cold outside when

I left the building." Okay? And then we also use adverbs when we talk about action, again,

to give emphasis to other adverbs. "James speaks too quickly." Yeah, I know. And you

just used it properly. You can go, "That's right. I will right now on the EngVid. You

speak too quickly. You taught me this. Now I use it, okay? So please, slow down. Do not

speak too slowly either. I will not be happy with this." Right? So we can say emphasis

-- too quickly or too slowly. "At the beginning, I told you about 'rather stupidly'." Yes.

I find many times I go to McDonald's, they look at me rather stupidly when I place my

order. Big Mac, fries, go, "Sir, was that a Big Mac?" Blink, blink, blink. You're looking

at me rather stupidly. Just want a Big Mac. Okay? So we can use "rather". Okay? There's

other words we can use as well. But just to keep it simple, when you do your research

or when you come back to EngVid to look at other lessons, we'll go over them.

So very quickly, I'm going to ask you some questions because I'm warning you now. On

the quiz, these very same questions will be there. So you might want to look at the video

again to make sure you can answer it. What do adverbs -- okay, what are the three things

adverbs work with? It's on the board. How do they modify things? Like, when do they

do things? What do they help tell you? What do they help to tell you? Okay? And give some

examples perhaps of a "where", a "when", or a "how". Yeah? Know the answer to this? Think

so, cool guy? Go to the quiz. Let's see. See how quickly you look stupidly at this point.

Yeah, that's right. Oh, but before I go, I'll quickly write down -- see, I'm using adverbs

like crazy. Something very interesting for you, I am sure. Again, I'm doing it, son. Follow

me. Go to www -- okay? You want to know where? Well, don't look around, okay? It's not going

to be everywhere, but look inside this, right? eng as in English, vid as in video.com, where

you'll get other lessons like this to help you improve your English. Rather quickly,

I would say. That's right. Still teaching. Bye.