English
What is an adverb?
Quick answer
An adverb gives more information about a verb, adjective or another adverb, telling how, when, where or how often, like slowly, tomorrow, outside or always.
In one sentence
An adverb is a word that adds detail to a verb (and sometimes to an adjective or another adverb), often telling you how, when, where or how often.
Explained
In The snail moved, we know what happened. In The snail moved slowly, we know how. Slowly is an adverb. The name is a clue: an adverb usually adds to a verb.
Adverbs answer four main questions:
- How? carefully, loudly, well, fast
- When? now, soon, yesterday, later
- Where? here, outside, upstairs, everywhere
- How often? always, often, sometimes, never
Adverbs can also make adjectives and other adverbs stronger or weaker: very cold, really quickly, quite good, too loud.
Many adverbs are made by adding the suffix -ly to an adjective: quiet → quietly, happy → happily, gentle → gently. But not all adverbs end in -ly (fast, soon, often, well), and not every -ly word is an adverb (friendly, lovely, ugly are adjectives).
Adverbs can move around a sentence, which lets writers change the emphasis: Suddenly, the lights went out. / The lights suddenly went out. An adverb or phrase moved to the front like this is called a fronted adverbial in schools in England.
From Year 5 in England, children also meet adverbs of possibility: perhaps, maybe, surely, certainly, probably.
snail
rabbit
clock
Examples
| Sentence | Adverb | Tells us |
|---|---|---|
| She whispered softly. | softly | how |
| We leave tomorrow. | tomorrow | when |
| Put the bags there. | there | where |
| He never eats olives. | never | how often |
| It was extremely hot. | extremely | how much |
Common mistakes
- Using "good" as an adverb. Say You played well, not You played good.
- Overusing -ly words. She ran quickly can become She sprinted, a stronger verb.
- Misspelling -ly words. Change y to i: happy → happily; drop the le: gentle → gently.
Quick quiz
Adverbs
Check what you know with 4 quick questions.
Question 1 of 4
Find the adverb: The snail moved slowly.
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For grown-ups
Related topics
Verbs
A verb is a word for an action (run, eat, write) or a state of being (is, seem, know). Almost every sentence has one, and verbs change to show tense.
Adjectives
An adjective is a word that describes a noun, telling you what kind, which one or how many, like a huge elephant, a sour lemon or three red balloons.
Fronted adverbials
A fronted adverbial is a word, phrase or clause at the start of a sentence that tells how, when, where or why, followed by a comma, as in Later that night, the owl hooted.
Suffixes
A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning or job, like -ful in helpful, -ness in kindness or -ed in jumped.
Alliteration
Alliteration is when several words close together start with the same sound, like six silly snakes or big brown bear. It makes writing catchy and memorable.
Antonyms
An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word, like hot and cold, up and down, or happy and unhappy.