The Adverb - English

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Last updated: June 10, 2025 at 0:06 am

hill photo The adverb, like the adjective, is a modifier.

The adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb in a sentence. When a word is used to modify a verb, adjective or another adverb, it is called an adverb.

So what exactly does the word “modify” mean? The word “modify,” as used in this sense, means to “add to the meaning of.”

So the adverb adds to the meaning of the verb, adjective, or other adverb. It makes the meaning of the verb, adjective or other adverb sharper, clearer, or more accurate.

If I say “The boy walked up the hill,” you understand something. Sure, you understand that the boy walked up the hill. But it is left to your imagination “in what manner” or “how” the boy walked up the hill.

Let’s use some adverbs to modify the verb “walked” in this sentence.

The boy walked slowly up the hill.

The boy walked quickly up the hill.

The boy walked steadily up the hill.

The words “slowly,” “quickly,” and “steadily” are adverbs because they are used to modify a verb: walked. Those adverbs make the meaning of the verb “walk,” clearer, sharper, and more accurate. The adverb, then, answers the question “how” or “in what manner.”

But it doesn’t stop there. We know that adverbs may be used to modify adjectives and other adverbs as well. Let’s use some adverbs that modify other adverbs. Here we go:

The boy walked very slowly up the hill.

The boy walked extremely quickly up the hill.

The boy walked quite steadily up the hill.

In the above sentences, the words in italics are adverbs which modify verbs, and the words in bold are adverbs which modify other adverbs.

But we also learn that adverbs may modify adjectives. Let’s look at some adverbs which modify adjectives.

As you know, an adjective modifies a noun. For example, in the phrase “the red house,” the adjective “red” modifies the noun “house.”

But what if I said “a very red house”? There, the adverb “very” modifies the adjective “red.”

Here are some more examples of adverbs which modify adjectives. In the sentences below, the adverbs are set in bold, and the adjectives in italics.

I bought a light blue coat.

There is a very small house on the hill.

We are going for a quick tour of the city.

Mark is an extremely strong lad.

In general, adverbs can be used to answer the following questions (with the ones at the top being most common):

How?
When?
Where?
Why?

He ran slowly. (How)

He arrived late. (when)

He went there. (where)

It wouldn’t be English grammar if there weren’t a couple of exceptions to these rules, and sometimes it’s the easier words that can cause students the greatest difficulty such as the adjectives: good, fast and hard.

He is a good guitarist.
He is a fast runner.
He is a hard worker.

This sounds okay so far, but when we use them as adverbs they can be a bit tricky for students.

He plays the guitar well. (not goodly)
He runs fast. (not fastly)
He works hard. (not hardly, this means something very different!)

Adverbs of frequency tell us how often something happens. These adverbs can describe definite frequency – things that happen at regular intervals – like daily, yearly and monthly. There are also adverbs that describe indefinite frequency – those that don’t specify an exact time frame – like rarely, usually or always.

Teaching adverbs of frequency normally deserves a lesson on its own, and can even take longer than one lesson to teach them all.

There are perhaps more adverbs of indefinite frequency than of definite, so here are a couple more examples for you:

never, hardly ever, always, nearly always, rarely, usually, sometimes, often

In the example above we placed the adverbs in an almost random order but it’s a lot easier to remember them when they are placed on a scale of least common to most common.