ADVERBS - Parts of Speech Lesson 5 - Basic English Grammar - What is an Adverb - Examples, Exercises

Hey there, in this lesson, I am going to teach you

all about adverbs.

You will learn what is an adverb, what are the different types of adverbs and

how to use adverbs correctly.

We will focus on avoiding common mistakes in two areas

comparative and superlative forms and then the very important topic, putting adverbs

in the correct position in a sentence.

So let’s start.

Before we begin, as always, if you have any questions at all,

just let me know in the comments section below, and I will talk to you there.

Alright, so to start, let me ask you a question what is an adverb?

Some people say adverbs are like adjectives – you know adjectives

(words like good, bad, beautiful, tall, short etc.)

they give information about nouns.

So people say adverbs give information about verbs.

Well, that’s only half-correct.

Because adverbs are very talented words they can give us information about verbs

but they can also give us information about adjectives,

other adverbs and even about whole sentences.

Now adverbs are all around us – words like slowly,

unfortunately, very, enough, tomorrow, however, always

and so on and so forth.

I’m sure you use adverbs all the time.

But why do we use them?

Well we use adverbs because they answer some important questions about our sentences

questions like when, where, how, how much, how often etc.

Take a look at these examples: in number one, ‘He ate the sandwich quickly’ - ‘quickly’

is the adverb it gives information about the verb ‘ate’

how did he eat the sandwich?

He ate it quickly.

In number two, how beautiful is Tami in that dress?

She is really beautiful (it means very beautiful).

So the adverb ‘really’ modifies the adjective ‘beautiful’

that means it gives information about the adjective.

In number three, we have an adverb of place.

Can you identify it?

It’s the word ‘here’ which gives us the answer to the question ‘where’.

In number four, we have an adverb of time – which is it?

It’s ‘yesterday’ and it tells us when.

And in number five, can you identify the adverb?

The adverb is the word ‘sometimes’ which answers

the question ‘How often’ – How often do I drink coffee?

Every morning?

No, only sometimes.

So here you see all the different things that adverbs can do.

And based on these functions (or the different jobs that they do),

adverbs are divided into five common types.

Let’s talk about that.

OK, adverbs are usually classified as adverbs of manner,

degree, place, time and frequency.

Adverbs of manner tell us how (that is, in what way an action

happens).

Adverbs of degreetell us how much (very good, really strong and so on).

Adverbs of place and time tell us where and when.

Adverbs of frequency tell us how often (always, never, sometimes and etc.).

Now there are also many other types such as adverbs

of opinion - ‘fortunately’, ‘personally’, ‘sadly’ etc.

these help us to express our point of view, and there are also connecting or linking adverbs

like ‘moreover’, ‘however’, ‘on the other

hand’, ‘therefore’ etc.

But the most important adverbs for us are the five that we discussed.

OK, at this point, I want to give you an important tip about words that end with

'ly'. When you say adverb, people generally think

of words like slowly, quickly, happily, sadly, quietly,

loudly and so on.

So it’s easy to think that all adverbs end with ‘ly’.

But this is not true.

In this chart, you can see many examples of adverbs that

have this ending.

Also, there are many adjectives that have this ending.

words like friendly (like She’s a friendly person) or

lovely (what a lovely bouquet – that’s a bunch of flowers)

these are adjectives, not adverbs.

So remember: many adverbs don’t end with ‘ly’ and

some words that end with ‘ly’ can be adjectives.

So, now, before we go any further, I want to give you

a quick test and check if you can identify adverbs correctly.

On the screen you see five sentences, and I want you to

identify all the adverbs.

You get extra points if you can say what type of adverb.

Pause the video now, think about your answers, and then

play the video again and check.

OK, how many adverbs did you identify?

Let’s see.

In the first sentence, there are two adverbs.

‘there’ is an adverb of place and ‘quietly’ is an adverb of

manner – i.e. it says how the action happened.

Both of these adverbs modify the verb ‘sat’.

In number two, the adverb is ‘yesterday ’ – it’s

an adverb of time.

In number three, there are again, two adverbs.

One is ‘downstairs ’ – an adverb of place

and the second is ‘fast’ - an adverb of manner.

In sentence number four, the adverb is ‘everyday’ and it is an adverb of frequency.

And in number five, again two adverbs, ‘well’

which is an adverb of manner – it tells us that Camila

speaks English well – and word ‘quite’ which is an adverb of

degree – it gives information about ‘well’, that is,

how well?

Quite well.

It’s like saying ‘very well’.

So did you get all of the adverbs?

Alright, now that you know how to identify adverbs,

let’s move on and talk about comparative and superlative

forms of adverbs and how to avoid mistakes when using them.

When we think of comparatives and superlatives, we usually

think of adjectives – more beautiful, less expensive,

stronger, higher etc.

But adverbs also have comparative and superlative forms.

These are very easy but many people make a common mistake here.

Let’s look at some examples and I’ll explain.

On the screen, you see two sentences.

Both of these have comparative adverbs.

In the first sentence, "can you please speak more loudly?"

So we’ve added ‘more’ to the adverb 'loudly' and it becomes a comparative

that modifies the verb ‘speak’.

In the same way, in number two, adults learn things less quickly than children

do – that means children learn more quickly and adults learn

less quickly.

So the comparative adverb ‘less quickly’ modifies the verb ‘learn’.

These two are easy.

But here’s where people make mistakes.

Now you see two more examples but this time, I want you

to choose the correct comparative form in each sentence.

Stop the video and think about your answers, then play the video again and check.

OK, let’s discuss them.

In number three, Leon’s car goes faster than Benjamin’s.

Now the word ‘fast’ can be an adjective (if it modifies a noun or pronoun) or it can

be an adverb (like here, it gives information about the

verb ‘goes’).

And the comparative form is always ‘faster’.

It's not more fast or fastly.

Both of those are errors.

Never say them.

And the superlative form of ‘fast’ is ‘fastest’.

Like if you want to say “Leon’s car goes the fastest.”

OK and in number four, "Amutha sings better than Mary does."

This one is a little tricky because if you don’t want to compare,

normally, you would just say "Amutha sings well."

Well is the adverb.

But in this sentence, we want to compare Amutha’s singing

with Mary’s singing.

The comparative form of well is better.

Never more well or more better.

Don’t say them.

And the superlative form of ‘well’ is best.

Did you get both of these right?

OK, now the important point here is that there are some adverbs

which have either ‘er’ and ‘est’ forms or irregular comparative

and superlative forms.

You see some of these on the screen.

It’s a good idea for you to memorize these forms so that you

use them correctly.

And if you want to learn more about comparative and superlative forms of adjectives,

see my lesson on adjectives in this series.

Alright, now let’s move on to our final topic in this lesson,

and that is the position of adverbs in a sentence.

OK, now this is probably where learners of English make the

most mistakes with adverbs.

Over the years, many of my students have asked me “where exactly should I put

an adverb in a sentence?

It’s so confusing.”

OK, well first let me ask you, how many positions can an adverb have in a

sentence?

The answer is three.

There are three possible positions for an adverb in a

sentence.

These are: beginning, middle and end.

Look at these examples: In the first example, "Hopefully, my wife

will be waiting for me at the airport" - the adverb is hopefully.

It shows my opinion (I hope) and it is in the beginning

or initial position.

The beginning position means that the adverb is at start of the sentence/clause or before

the subject of the sentence.

In the next two examples, the adverb is in the middle position,

that is, between the subject and the main verb.

In number two, the adverb ‘often ’ comes directly after the

subject (I) and before the verb (travel).

In number three, the adverb ‘still’ comes after the

helping verb (am) and before the main verb (working).

But this is still called the middle position because it’s not

in the beginning or end.

In the last example, you see an adverb in the end position

or at the end of the sentence or clause -

the adverb 'beautifully.'

OK, so how do you decide where to put an adverb?

Well, the bad news is that there are many, many, many, many

rules regarding adverb position in English.

But thankfully, there’s some good news too.

And that is, if you know the most important rules,

you can avoid the most common mistakes.

So let’s talk about these rules now.

OK, now before I give you the rules, I’m going to test how much you know.

On the screen, there are nine sentences.

All nine sentences are wrong.

They have errors in the position of adverbs (the adverbs are underlined).

In each sentence, I want you to correct the error by putting

the adverb in the correct position.

Stop the video, think about your answers, then play the video again and check.

Alright, let’s look at the answers.

The first two sentences have adverbs of degree in them.

In number one, the sentence should be "Maya looks extremely angry."

This is because when an adverb of degree (extremely, in this case)

modifies an adjective (like angry), the adverb should come first.

So adverb first then adjective.

In number two, the problem is that adverbs of degree (very, really etc.)

don’t usually occur at the beginning.

This is just like the last example but here, the adverb 'really' tells us about

the verb likes.

So the best place to put it is right before the verb.

So Lucy really likes pancakes.

Sentences three and four have adverbs of manner.

So what about number three?

Here, the adverb (carefully) is in between the verb (placed) and

the object of the verb (the candles).

This is a very important rule.

Never put an adverb between a verb and its object.

A verb that has an object is called a transitive verb

and it loves its object so much, so don’t separate them.

The best place to put the adverb is before the verb –

Jeremy carefully placed the candles on the cake.

In number four, we have an intransitive verb, that is the verb laugh does not have an object

– you cannot ask laughed who or laughed what

(if you don’t understand this, watch my lesson on verbs).

OK so with intransitive verbs (verbs with no object),

we put the adverb of manner after the verb.

So The audience laughed loudly at the comedian’s jokes.

And now let’s turn to adverbs of frequency In number five, what’s the problem?

Well the problem is that frequency adverbs (like always and never)

usually go in the middle position (that is between the subject and

the verb) – so I never watch horror movies.

Some frequency adverbs like sometimes or often can go at the beginning

or end position in some situations.

But usually, we put frequency adverbs in the middle position - before the main verb.

That is, except, in a sentence like number six.

If the main verb is ‘be’ or any form of be –

am, is, are, was, were or will be, the frequency adverb goes

after the verb ‘be’ – so Rashida is sometimes late for work.

But this is only for the verb ‘be’.

OK, what about number seven?

Here, notice here that there are two verbs – the main verb is carry but

there’s also a helping verb – should (which is a modal

verb).

When there is a helping verb, we usually put adverbs of frequency

between the helping and main verbs – so find the

two verbs and stick the adverb in the middle.

So You should always carry a first-aid kit in your car.

In number eight, the adverb every year is in the wrong place

it should be at the beginning or at the end of the sentence

it's a little more natural to put it at the end.

So I go to my family home for Christmas every year

The rule here is that if you have an adverb of frequency

that is definite, meaning it mentions day, week, month or year,

it goes at the beginning or end position.

In number nine, the problem is similar – if you have an adverb

that says how many times: once, twice etc. it has to go

to the end – it’s not common to put it at the beginning or

middle position – it has to go at the end.

So Marcos has eaten sushi twice.

How many of these did you get right?

Now I know that we just looked at a lot of rules.

And you know what, these aren’t all the rules for adverb

position, there are many more.

But if you know these rules the rules that we just discussed, you will

be able to avoid the most common mistakes with adverbs

And I promise they will get easier with time and practice.

OK, so in this lesson, we first looked at what is an adverb

then we discussed the different types of adverbs

adverbs of manner, degree, place, time and frequency

and then we turned to avoiding common errors

first with comparative and superlative forms of adverbs

and finally, with putting adverbs in the correct position in sentences

Alright, I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Subscribe to this channel for more free English lessons

and I will see you in another lesson soon.