What is an adverb?

What is an adverb?

Basically, most adverbs tell you how, where, or when something is done. In other words, they describe the manner, place, or time of an action. Here are some examples:

Type	Adverb	Example
Manner	slowly	Jane drives slowly.
Place	here	The party is going to take place here.
Time	yesterday	I called him yesterday.

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How to recognize an adverb

Many adverbs end with the suffix -LY. Most of these are created by adding -LY to the end of an adjective, like this:

Adjective	Adverb
slow	slowly
delightful	delightfully
hopeless	hopelessly
aggressive	aggressively

However, this is NOT a reliable way to find out whether a word is an adverb or not, for two reasons: many adverbs do NOT end in -LY (some are the same as the adjective form), and many words which are NOT adverbs DO end in -LY (such as kindly, friendly, elderly and lonely, which are adjectives). Here are some examples of adverbs which are the same as adjectives:

Adjective	Adverb
fast	fast
late	late
early	early

The best way to tell if a word is an adverb is to try making a question, for which the answer is the word. If the question uses how, where or when, then the word is probably an adverb. Here is an example:

Word in context	Question	Adverb?
Junko plays tennis aggressively.	How does Junko play tennis?	Yes -- uses HOW.
They have a small house.	What kind of house do they have?	No -- uses WHAT KIND OF, so this is an adjective.
Matthew called the police immediately.	When did Matthew call the police?	Yes -- uses WHEN.

Adjectives or adverbs? confusing cases

Adjectives ending in -ly

Most adverbs end in -ly. There are also some adjectives ending in -ly. Examples are: costly, cowardly, deadly, friendly, likely, lively, lonely, lovely, silly, ugly etc.

• She is a lovely girl. (Here lovely is an adjective. It modifies the noun girl.)
• I love his friendly nature. (Here the adjective friendly modifies the noun nature.)

There are no adverbs friendly / friendlily, lovely / lovelily etc.
Some words can be used both as adjectives and as adverbs. Examples are: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, early, leisurely etc.

• We should catch an early train. (Here early is an adjective. It modifies the noun train.)
• I got up early. (Here early is an adverb. It modifies the verb got up.)

Adjectives and adverbs with the same form

Some adjectives and adverbs have the same form. Examples are: fast and hard.

• A fast car goes fast.
• If you do hard work, you work hard.

In some cases, the adverb may have two forms: one like the adjective and the other ending in -ly. There is usually a difference of meaning or use.
Examples are: dead and deadly, fine and finely, free and freely, hard and hardly etc.
The adverb dead is used in some expressions to mean ‘exactly’ or ‘very’.

• He was dead drunk.

Note that deadly is an adjective meaning ‘fatal’. The adverb for this meaning is fatally.

• She was fatally injured in the accident. (NOT She was deadly injured in the accident.)

Fine and finely

The adverb fine means ‘well’. It is used in some informal expressions.

• She is doing fine.

The adverb finely is used to talk about small careful adjustments.

• finely ground particles
• a finely tuned machine

Free and freely

The adverb free means ‘without payment’. The adverb freely means ‘without restriction’.

• Buy two shirts and get one free.
• Speak freely. (= Speak without fear or inhibition.)

Hard and hardly

The adverb hard has a similar meaning to the adjective hard.

• He works hard.
• Hit it hard.

Hardly has a negative meaning. It means ‘almost not’.

• We have got hardly any rice left.

High and highly

High is used to talk about height. Highly often means ‘very much’.

• He threw it as high as he could.
• It is highly amusing.

Late and lately

The adverb late has a similar meaning to the adjective late. Lately means ‘recently’.

• He arrived late.
• Have you read anything interesting lately?

Most and mostly

Most is the superlative form of much.

• This is the most interesting film I have ever seen.

Most can mean ‘very’ in a very formal style.

• It is a most interesting novel. (= It is a very interesting novel.)

Mostly means ‘mainly’.

• My friends are mostly vegetarians.

Real and really

In informal American English, real is often used instead of really.

• She sings real well. (= She sings really well.)