1.2 More things you can do with adverbs
Adverbs can do more than tell us how someone does (or did) something (slowly, painfully, happily, expensively). Sometimes we can use adverbs to give us more information about an adjective. Maybe we think clever or hot or expensive is going too far, so we can add is quite clever, is fairly hot, or is somewhat expensive. Or if the adjective on its own isn’t strong enough, we can add really clever, immensely hot, or extremely expensive.
Another set of adverbs can show how often something happens: never, rarely, seldom, occasionally, sometimes, regularly, often, frequently, always. As you can see, a good number of these common adverbs don’t end in -ly.
Of those that do take this morpheme, there are some adverbs that can be used to show your opinion about or attitude towards something: understandably, unquestionably, arguably, basically, obviously, actually, naturally. These adverbs are often used at the start of a statement, such as obviously that was a mistake or understandably he was annoyed.
Activity 2 Can you spot the adverbs?
In the following passage, see if you can highlight all the adverbs (there are fourteen). Once you’ve found them all, put each one in a column of the table below, according to the information that it is adding to the passage.
Frequency (how often?) | Manner (how?) | Modifying an adjective | Showing opinion |
Comment
Frequency (how often?) | Manner (how?) | Modifying (a verb or adjective) | Showing opinion |
regularly often frequently sometimes always |
hard early suddenly
|
nearly extremely really vitally
|
naturally obviously
|
If you spotted them all, well done. If there were a few you missed, take a look at the text again. (Note the two very common adverbs which don’t end in -ly, often and hard, and that lonely and lovely are both adjectives.)