What is an Adverb?
An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as “how,” “when,” “where,” “how much”. While some adverbs can be identified by their characteristic “ly” suffix, most of them must be identified by untangling the grammatical relationships within the sentence or clause as a whole. Unlike an adjective, an adverb can be found in various places within the sentence.
• An adverb, narrowly defined, is a word belonging to a class of words which modify verbs for such categories as • time • manner • place, or • direction. • An adverb, broadly defined, is a word belonging to a class of words which modify any constituent class of words other than nouns, such as • verbs • adjectives • adverbs • phrases • clauses, or • sentences. Under this definition, the possible type of modification depends on the class of the constituent being modified.
An adverb is a modifying part of speech, targeting anything other than a noun. Not all languages use an adverb to accomplish this, as the role may be filled by other parts of speech, but English uses them widely. Many adverbs in English end with the -ly suffix, usually with an adjective as the root word, as in quickly or obtrusively. This does not always hold true, however, as an adverb does not always use the -ly ending, while some words that are not adverbs end in ly — smelly and ally are two examples of exceptions. Adverbs are also often formed by taking a noun and adding the -ways or -wise suffix to it, as in the adverbs sideways and contrariwise. An adverb is often thought of as modifying a verb, both because this is easiest to remember — due to the name — and because it is the role most often filled by this part of speech. It is important to note, however, that an adverb may also serve to modify other adverbs, adjectives, and entire clauses or phrases. Usually an adverb serves
• An adverb is a part of speech that describes or modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, clause, or sentence. • Adverbs answer the questions “How?”, “When?”, “Where?”, “Why?”, “In what way?”, “How much?”, “How often?”, “Under what condition”, “To what degree?” • The easiest adverbs to recognize are those that end in -ly. Some adjectives end with -ly also but remember that adjectives can modify only nouns and pronouns. Adverbs modify everyting else. • An adverb can be placed anywhere in a sentence.
