XXII - GRAMMAR - Adverbs

Adverbs


Adverbs are words that tell us more about verbs - they add information to the verb.
(A verb is a ‘doing’ word or a ‘being’ word: eg walk, feel.)
Using adverbs makes your sentences more interesting. Any verb you use can have an adverb added:

The girl smiled nervously.
The boy grinned sheepishly.
The light shone feebly.

We use adverbs:

• To say how something happens:
  The family walk (how?) quickly.
• To say where or when something happens:
  I met him (when?) yesterday.
• To say how often something happens:
  She gets the bus (how often?) daily.
• To make the meaning of an adjective, adverb or verb stronger or weaker:
  Dave eats (degree?) more slowly than his wife.

Adverbs are often created from adjectives (describing words that tell you more about nouns) by adding -ly to the end of the adjective: For example:

• slow becomes slowly: Joe is a slow person. He walks slowly. 

Certain words change when they become adverbs. If an adjective ends in a ‘y’ you need to change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ before adding ‘-ly’. For example:

• happy becomes happily
• heavy becomes heavily