Adverb: Definition & Types

An adverb is a word or a set of words that describe when, where and how an action was performed or quality and degree of action.

Most of the adverbs end at “-ly”, although some words ending at “-ly” cannot be considered as adverbs.

Examples:

  • The traffic is really busy during office hours.
  • The powers got off unexpectedly.
  • John didn’t study the last two topics, even though they were extremely
  • This movie is quite
  • Last night, a burglar quietly crept in the house, luckily the security alarms scared him away.

Adverb clauses and adverb phrases use an expression to describe how, when, why or where some action was performed.

Adverb Clause:

  • A person must not stop trying until he succeeds.

Adverb Phrase:

  • I placed my book safely in the top right shelf.

 

Types of Adverbs:

Following are the types of adverbs:

  • Conjunctive Adverbs.
  • Sentence Adverbs.
  • Adverbs of Time/Frequency.
  • Adverbs of Place/Direction.
  • Adverbs of Degree.
  • Adverbs of Manner.

 

Conjunctive Adverbs:

A conjunctive adverb acts as a link between two clauses or expression.

It connects two sentences.

Example:

  • The weather forecast didn’t look good. Therefore, they had to delay the start of the event.
  • Most of the students skipped the class, although a quiz was announced.

 

Sentence Adverbs:

Adverbs at the start of a sentence are known as sentence adverbs.

Example:

  • Fortunately, there wasn’t much traffic on the roads.
  • Mostly, people go to this university for a business degree.

 

Adverbs of Time/Frequency:

This type of adverb defines when or how often an event occurs.  It may be words like sometimes, never, daily, tomorrow, etc. or it can be days of the week or a particular time.

Example:

  • Alan’s interview was successful, so he was asked to join on Monday.
  • After staying out till late at night, he couldn’t wake up on time.
  • The team had to do 10 laps around the ground

 

Adverbs of Place/Direction:

Adverbs of Place and Direction describes the location where an action was performed. It includes names of places, or words like Here, there, across, under, etc.

Examples:

  • Due to construction work he had to park his car across the bridge.
  • The rainwater couldn’t drain out from the park.
  • The boy fell off playing basketball in the court.

 

Adverbs of Degree:

Adverbs of degree express the importance of an event, or its level or degree.

Examples:

  • The glass was half-filled.
  • His painting wasn’t yet completed but it looked amazing.
  • Excessive use of mobile phones can be harmful.

 

Adverbs of Manner:

Describes HOW an action is performed or say describes it process/method/approach.

Example:

  • Bullet trains travel quickly.
  • The chess player made his move wisely.
  • These machines do the job efficiently.
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