Unit 6
Adverbs

The main difference between adverbs and adjectives is that adjectives are used to describe nouns while adverbs are used to describe verbs, participles, adjectives, other adverbs or whole sentences: The view was incredible. It was incredibly picturesque.

We can say adjectives answer the question what kind? and adverbs answer the questions how? or in what way? (adverbs of manner) where? (adverbs of place), when? (adverbs of time), how much/to what extent? (adverbs of degree) or how often (adverbs of frequency). There are also sentence adverbs (probably, maybe, etc.) and relative adverbs (where, why, when).

A lynx is a (what kind?) graceful animal. adjective

It moves (how?) gracefully. Adverb

Remember that we use adjectives (NOT ADVERBS) after some verbs, especially be, become, appear, look, feel, seem, smell, sound, taste etc.

EXERCISE 1

Complete each sentence using a word from the box. Sometimes you need the adjective and sometimes the adverb:

1 When the dogs weren’t able to find the lynx anywhere around, they found her behaviour strangely / strange.

2 They were really / real fed up with all the recent / recently mysteries and decided not to look for the lynx.

3 Kit didn’t look happy / happily about it but he didn’t say anything.

4 Their lunch break was unexpectedly / unexpected long and it was getting dark / darkly so quick / quickly that the team moved to the mountain.

5 In the evening sun the mount looked even more mysterious / mysteriously and magnificent / magnificently.

6 When Luna touched it carefully / careful, she yelped with surprise – it felt freezing / freezingly cold.

7 The dogs went around the mountain cautiously / cautious but didn’t find any slit or crack to get into.

8 Feeling confused / confusedly, the friends sat at the foot of this mount-tower to give it a good / well think.

9 At this moment the lynx suddenly / sudden popped up out of nowhere.

10 She looked calm / calmly as if she hadn’t disappeared at all.

FORMING ADVERBS

A lot of adjectives can be turned into adverbs by adding the ending —LY: bad – badly, perfect – perfectly, sudden – suddenly

For adjectives that already end in —Y, we change the y to i: angry – angrily, happy – happily

For adjectives ending in -IC, we add -ally: drastic – drastically, frantic – frantically

For adjectives that end in —LE, we change the e to y: subtle – subtly, terrible – terribly

But for other adjectives ending in —E, we keep the e: rude – rudely, brave – bravely

If an adjective already ends in -LY ((elderly, fatherly, friendly, lively, lonely, lovely, motherly, silly, ugly, etc) we don’t double -LY, we usually say in a ***** way/manner/fashion:

The lynx behaved in a friendly way. She spoke in a lively manner.

If adjectives end in —ED, we usually can’t add —LY, so again we use either the structure in a ***** way or a preposition (mostly in or from) and a related noun: Luna and Cuba lay down in an exhausted way. They lay down from exhaustion.

Some adjectives ending in —ED can become adverbs with —LY: excitedly, hurriedly, repeatedly, unexpectedly, supposedly, confusedly

As for adjectives ending in —ING, many of these can be turned into adverbs: The lynx was charmingly graceful.

Some adverbs have the same form as adjectives: big, cheap*, clean*, clear*, close*, cold, daily, dead, dear*, deep, direct, dirty, early, easy, extra, far, fast, fine*, free, hard, high, hourly, inside, kindly, last, late, long, loud*, low, monthly, past, quick*, quiet*, right, slow*, straight, sure, thin*, thick, tight, weekly, wide, wrong, yearly etc.

The adverbs with an asterisk (*) can be found with -Iy without a difference in meaning, but then they are more formal:

The dogs walked slow (informal) Kit walked slowly. (formal)

EXERCISE 2

Form adverbs from the following adjectives:

1 delicate —

2 logical —

3 serious —

4 cosy —

5 dramatic —

6 horrible —

7 scarce —

8 lovely —

9 quiet —

10 ugly —

 
ADVERBS WITH TWO FORMS
 

Some adverbs have two forms – one with -LY and one without – which actually have different meanings.

deep — a long way down

deeply — greatly

easy — gently and slowly

easily — without difficulty

free — without cost

freely — willingly

hard — intently / with effort

hardly — scarcely

high — at / to a high level

highly — very much

last – after all other

lastly — finally

late — not early

lately — recently

near — close

nearly — almost

short — suddenly / off target

shortly — soon

wide — fully / off target

widely — to a large extent

EXERCISE 3

Underline the correct form of the adverb:

1 Seeing the lynx, the friends could hardly/hard believe their eyes – they thought they would never meet her again.

2 They’d kept looking at her widely/wide-eyed until Kit jumped up and gave her a hug.

3 Everyone felt more relaxed after that and the talk flowed freely/free.

4 The lynx tried to explain where she had been and, lastly/last, she claimed to have found the way to the laboratory.

5 The dogs near/nearly believed the lynx as she was speaking very convincingly.

6 Shortly/short after her story the friends decided to rely on the lynx and followed her to the laboratory.

7 Surprisingly, the tunnel leading to the laboratory was nearly/near the place where they were.

8 It went deep/deeply down under the mountain and seemed to be very long and rather narrow.

9 The dogs had to try very hard/hardly to crawl through the tunnel.

10 It was only the kitten who did it quite easily/easy and very fast/fastly.

WORD ORDER OF ADVERBS

Adverbs usually go after verbs but before adjectives, other adverbs and participles. They can be used in front, mid or end position in a sentence. The position of adverbs in the sentence depends on what type of adverb it is. Remember – never place an adverb between a verb and its object:

The lynx carefully looked around and followed the dogs slowly.

The lynx carefully looked around and followed slowly the dogs.

Adverbs of manner go before the main verb, after the auxiliary verb or at the end of a sentence:

Kit easily went through the tunnel. He was eagerly waiting for the dogs when he heard a noise and mewed loudly.

Mid-position gives less emphasis to the adverb while end-position gives more emphasis to it.

Adverbs of manner not ending in —ly (like well, hard, and fast) can only be used in the end position: Hearing him mew, the dogs crawled fast.

ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY

Adverbs of definite frequency include words like daily, weekly, every year, last week, etc. These can go in the front-position or end-position (more common): The lynx told them the tunnel had appeared last month.

The single-word adverbs of frequency cannot go in the front-position.

Adverbs of indefinite frequency include words like often, usually, frequently, occasionally, sometimes, rarely, always, never, finally, eventually, and soon. Always and never go in the mid-position, before the verb: She never went there alone. The others can go in various positions: Occasionally she heard some noises coming from that place. She occasionally heard some noises coming from that place. She heard some noises coming from that place occasionally.

Adverbs of place (downstairs, outside, nearby, south/southward, towards, backwards, and everywhere) usually go in end-position or mid-position immediately after the verb:

Once the lynx saw the glass shatter and the pieces fly everywhere.

When there is more than one adverb in the sentence, their usual order is manner – place – time.

She observed the tunnel carefully from the tree every night.

When there is a verb of movement such as go, come or leave in the sentence, then the adverbs come in the following order:

place – manner – time: Once the lynx saw a scientist with a red dog rush to the tunnel suddenly at midnight.

Adverbs of time usually go at the end of the sentence, however, they can go in the front position to emphasise the time. When there is more than one time adverb, we usually put the more specific ones before the more general ones (time – day – date – year).

Kudjo was born at 5 am on Monday, January 28, 2015.

CONNECTING AND COMMENTING ADVERBS

Connecting adverbs show the relationship between events or ideas: however, anyway, then, next, similarly, additionally, furthermore, otherwise, etc.

Commenting adverbs show us the speaker’s attitude or opinion about the sentence: fortunately, surprisingly, stupidly, personally, honestly, etc.

Both of these usually go in any position but the front-position is the most common: The lynx was sure that the red dog was Kudjo. Honestly, not everybody believed her. However, Kit found Kudjo’s collar nearby.

ADVERBS OF CERTAINTY

These are adverbs like definitely, certainly, clearly, obviously, probably, maybe, and perhaps.

Maybe and perhaps usually go in the front-position: Perhaps, Kudjo is still in the laboratory.

Other adverbs of certainty usually go in the mid-position – before the verb, except in the case of the verb «to be,» when they are placed afterwards. The dogs should definitely get there to check it.

EXERCISE 4

Put each adverb in the right position in the sentence. Occasionally, more than one correct answer is possible:

1 Luna didn’t want to follow the lynx, but she couldn’t imagine Kit being without her. (frankly, anywhere, in the tunnel)

2 the dogs must have made a mistake when they got so (obviously, into the tunnel, carelessly)

3 Everybody had been silent while crawling until they heard Kit mew. (totally, aloud, way ahead)

4 They were certain that Kit had met somebody. (absolutely, definitely, on his way)

5 Chilly barked to warn this somebody against doing any harm to the kitten. (immediately, rather, aggressively)

6 Luna and Cuba roared to support Chilly. (at the same moment, really, threateningly)

7 the lynx didn’t make any sound and turned to silence Chilly. (surprisingly, moreover, short)

8 the dogs got to the final point of their tiresome tunnel journey. (at last, nearly, rather)

9 had the dogs taken the last turn when they found themselves in a big room. (hardly, finally, quite)

10 There was Kit trying to open a metal door, which looked as if it had been used. (hard, hardly, for ages)

COMPARISONS

The Comparative and Superlative forms of adverbs are formed in the same way as those of adjectives:

adverbs having the same forms as their adjectives add -er/-est: fast – faster – fastest

early drops -y and adds -ier/-iest: earlier – earliest

two syllable or compound adverbs (adjectives + -ly) take more/most adjectives + -ly: patiently – more patiently – most patiently

Irregular forms are:

well – better – best

badly – worse – worst

many, much, a lot – more – most

little – less – least

far – further – furthest

With superlative adverbs, we can use the or zero article if we compare one person or thing with other people or things.

Kit ran (the) fastest.

However, sometimes we compare a person or thing in one situation with the same person or thing in a different situation. In this case, when the superlative adjective or adverb is later in the sentence, we usually don’t use the: Chilly runs fastest in emergencies.