Adverb s an adverb

See also:

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  Adverb phrases
  
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  Already, still or yet?
  

Place adverbs
Place adverbs tell us about where something happens or where something is.
There was somebody standing nearby.
Is that your scarf there?
You go upstairs and do your homework. I’ll come up in a minute.
Manner adverbs
Manner adverbs tell us about the way something happens or is done.

accurately	beautifully	expertly	professionally
anxiously	carefully	greedily	quickly
badly	cautiously	loudly	quietly

Manner adverbs are often formed from adjectives by adding -ly:
She spoke very loudly. We could all hear what she was saying.
We waited anxiously by the phone.
We walked up the stairs very quietly because Mum and Dad were asleep.
Some common manner adverbs have the same form as adjectives and they have similar meanings (e.g. fast, right, wrong, straight, tight).

adjective	adverb
I was never a fast swimmer	Driving fast is dangerous
All of your answers were wrong.	People always spell my name wrong.
Is that the right time?	That builder never does anything right!
My hair is straight.	Let’s go straight to the airport.

Degree adverbs (slightly) and focusing adverbs (generally)
Degree and focusing adverbs are the most common types of modifiers of adjectives and other adverbs. Degree adverbs express degrees of qualities, properties, states, conditions and relations. Focusing adverbs point to something.
Degree adverbs

absolutely	enough	perfectly	somewhat
a (little) bit	entirely	pretty	terribly
a lot	extremely	quite	too
almost	fairly	rather	totally
awfully	highly	remarkably	utterly
completely	lots	slightly	very

Mary will be staying a bit longer. (a bit longer = for a little more time)
It all happened pretty quickly.
She was quite surprised they came, actually.
It was £3.52 if you want to be totally accurate.
Focusing adverbs

especially	just	mainly	particularly
generally	largely	only	simply

I just wanted to ask you what you thought.
I wouldn’t particularly like to move to a modern house.
See also:

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  Adverbs
  

Evaluative adverbs (surprisingly) and viewpoint adverbs (personally)
We put some adverbs outside the clause. They modify the whole sentence or utterance. Evaluative and viewpoint adverbs are good examples of this:
The electric car, surprisingly, does not really offer any advantages over petrol cars. (evaluative)
Personally, I think the show was great. (viewpoint)
Linking adverbs (then, however)
Linking adverbs show a relationship between two clauses or sentences (e.g. a sequence in time, cause and effect, contrast between two things):
I left my house in the morning [sequence]then I went to pick up Leanne at her house.
[cause]We talked until the early hours and [effect]consequently I overslept the next morning. (the result of the late night is that I was late the next morning)
The sun will be shining in France. [contrast]However, heavy rain is expected in Spain.
Warning:
We can use then and consequently to join clauses or sentences. We usually use but not however to connect two clauses in the same sentence:
There was no room for them but they got on the train.
There was no room for them. However, they got on the train.
Functions[edit]
The English word adverb derives (through French) from Latin adverbium, from ad- ("to"), verbum ("word", "verb"), and the nominal suffix -ium. The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs or verb phrases.^[1] An adverb used in this way may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Some examples:

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  She sang loudly (loudly modifies the verb sang, indicating the manner of singing)
  
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  We left it here (here modifies the verb phrase left it, indicating place)
  
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  I worked yesterday (yesterday modifies the verb worked, indicating time)
  
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  You often make mistakes (often modifies the verb phrase make mistakes, indicating frequency)
  
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  He undoubtedly did it (undoubtedly modifies the verb phrase did it, indicating certainty)
  

Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples:

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  You are quite right (the adverb quite modifies the adjective right)
  
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  She sang very loudly (the adverb very modifies another adverb – loudly)
  

They can also modify determiners, prepositional phrases,^[1] or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples:

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  I bought practically the only fruit (practically modifies the determiner the in the noun phrase, "the only fruit" wherein "only" is an adjective)
  
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  She drove us almost to the station (almost modifies the prepositional phrase to the station)
  
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  Certainly we need to act (certainly modifies the sentence as a whole)
  

Adverbs thus perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major exception is the function of modifier of nouns, which is performed instead by adjectives (compare she sang loudly with her loud singing disturbed me; here the verb sang is modified by the adverb loudly, whereas the noun singing is modified by the adjective loud). However, because some adverbs and adjectives are homonyms, their respective functions are sometimes conflated:

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  Even numbers are divisible by two
  
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  The camel even drank.
  

The word "even" in the first sentence is an adjective, since it is a prepositive modifier that modifies the noun "numbers". The word "even" in the second sentence is a prepositive adverb that modifies the verb "drank."
Although it is possible for an adverb to precede or to follow a noun or a noun phrase, the adverb nonetheless does not modify either in such cases, as in:

•