Adverbs | Introduction | Learn Basic English Grammar

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to this English course on adverbs.

And in this video we're gonna talk about adverbs.

Now the simplest definition of an adverb is that it's a word that describes or modifies a verb.

Now actually adverbs can modify other parts of the sentence like other adverbs.

But in this video, we will focus on verbs and four kinds of adverbs.

Adverbs of time. Adverbs of place. Of Manner and Adverbs of Degree.

Usually they will answer the following questions about the verbs:

When? Where? How? and To what extent?

Let's look at these sentences.

"The boy ran."

And then we have, "The boy ran excitedly."

Now this example shows the power of adverbs.

In the second sentence you find out how the boy ran.

In the first sentence you don't have any information on how the boy ran.

So in the second sentence, we find out that the boy was very excited.

So it's very important to understand adverbs and understand how to use them

because they will make you speak English a lot better.

So let's get started.

First let's talk about the position of an adverb.

So where do we put the adverb in the sentence?

Now that is a bit tricky because the adverb in an English sentence can be in different parts of the sentence.

Let's look at a few examples:

She climbed the mountain slowly.

Slowly she climbed the mountain.

She slowly climbed the mountain.

Can you guess which word is the adverb?

The word 'slowly' is the adverb.

It describes how she climbed the mountain.

And as you can see, the adverb is in three different parts of the sentence but the meaning is exactly the same.

So let's practice pronunciation.

Repeat after me please.

She climbed the mountain slowly.

Slowly she climbed the mountain.

She slowly climbed the mountain.

Great guys. let's move on.

Let's now talk about how to make adverbs.

Now most adverbs, not all of them, but most of them end in -ly.

So it's actually very easy.

You take the adjective and you add 'ly' at the end.

Let's look at a few examples.

If you have the adjective 'nice', and you add 'ly' to it, you make the adverb 'nicely'.

So for example you could say,

"He is a nice speaker" using the adjective 'nice'.

But you could also use the adverb 'nicely' and say,

"He speaks nicely."

A second example - If we take the adjective 'quick', and we add 'ly', we can make the adverb 'quickly'.

So we could say,

"He is a quick runner."

But we could also say,

"He runs quickly."

Okay. Let's practice pronunciation.

Repeat after me please.

"He speaks nicely."

"He runs quickly."

Good job guys.

Let's move on.

Be careful guys.

Not all adverbs end in 'ly'.

Some adjectives don't change form when they become adverbs.

They're called flat adverbs.

Typical flat adverbs would be 'early' or 'late' and a few others.

And it's very important to know these flat adverbs.

Because a lot of my students try to add 'ly' to some adjectives

and unfortunately they make incorrect sentences.

So let's take a look at an example.

Okay. If I tell you

"The car drove fastly"

Do you think that makes sense?

Now it does make sense to try to add 'ly' to the adjective 'fast',

but unfortunately guys 'fastly' does not exist in English.

So the correct sentence is,

"The car drove fast."

Another example,

"He arrived 'late' or 'lately' to class."

What do you think's the correct answer?

Again, it makes sense to try to add 'ly' to the adjective 'late',

but 'lately' is not the adverb of the adjective 'late'.

The adverb is 'late'.

So the correct sentence is, "He arrived late to class."

Let's practice pronunciation. Please repeat after me.

"The car drove fast."

"He arrived late to class."

Great job guys.

I hope you now understand flat adverbs better.

Let's move on.

Let's now take a look at a few sentences to practice finding and making adverbs that modify verbs.

Now remember, adverbs tell us so much about the verb.

Usually they tell us 'when' or 'where' or 'how' or 'to what degree'.

So the first example we have is,

"He easily lifted the box."

Can you spot the adverb in this sentence?

Of course the adverb is 'easily' - ending in 'ly'.

Okay and it tells us how he lifted the box.

It's an adverb of manner.

Now the second sentence,

and this is a bit more difficult,

"I will download the file tomorrow."

Now where is the adverb?

Because there is no word ending in 'ly', so it's a bit more complicated.

Well the adverb is 'tomorrow' and it tells you 'when'.

It's an adverb of time.

And these are sometimes a bit more difficult.

Make sure you watch my next video. I will talk about them.

Our third example now.

"I put it there."

Again no words ending in 'ly'.

The adverb is the word 'there'.

And it tells us 'where'.

It's an adverb of place.

We will talk about them in our next videos as well.

And our last example,

"You didn't study enough for the test."

The adverb is the word 'enough'.

And it's an adverb of degree.

Okay. It tells us to what degree.

Again it's not a word ending in 'ly'.

And we will talk about adverbs of degree in our next videos.

For now, let's practice pronunciation a bit. Please repeat after me.

"He easily lifted the box."

"I will download the file tomorrow."

"I put it there."

"You didn't study enough for the test."

Great guys.

Remember guys - it's very important to understand adverbs and to know how to make them.

They will make you speak English so much better.

And this video was only a quick introduction to adverbs in English.

In our next videos, we will focus on each kind of adverbs.

So make sure you watch the rest of the course.

Thank you for watching my video and see you next time.

Thank you guys for watching my video.

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