English Adverbs: Classification and List

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You adverbs in english (adverbs) are words that modify the verb, the adjective or the adverb.

According to the meaning they offer in the sentence, they are classified into: adverbs of time, mode, place, affirmation, negation, order, doubt, intensity, frequency and interrogatives.

Interrogative Adverbs (Interrogative Adverbs)

Interrogative adverbs are used in questions and always appear at the beginning of sentences.

how: like
when: When
Onde: Where
why: why

Examples:

how much are these shoes? (How much do these shoes cost?)
when will you go to the gym? (When do you go to the gym?)
Onde are my dresses? (Where are my dresses?)
why Did you buy that house? (Why did you buy that house?)

Adverbs and Adjectives (Adverbs and Adjectives)

There is often confusion in the use of these two grammatical classes. Check out the differences below:

Adjective: term that qualifies the noun or pronoun.

Josh is a very fast runner. (Josh is a very fast runner).

Adverb: term that modifies verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. It points out how, where, or when something happened.

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josh runs very fast. (Josh runs too fast).

In both examples the word fast (fast) is used. However, in the first case, the adjective qualifies the name (runner), while in the second case, the adverb indicates how or in what way Josh runs (very fast).

Note that in this example, the word fast it has not been modified, as there are some cases where the same word is used for adverbs and adjectives.

beyond the word fast (quickly, quickly), the words bark (late, late) and hard (hard, hard) are also used as an adverb and an adjective.

Attention! (Pay Attention!)

At formation of some adverbs, the adjective is usually closely related to it. Check out a table of adverbs below:

Adjective	Adverb
Brave (angry)	Bravely (bravely)
Certain (right)	Certainly (certainly)
happy	Happily (fortunately)
perfect	Perfectly
Quick (fast)	Quickly (quickly)
serious (seriously)	Serously (seriously)

Note: as you saw in the adverbs table above, usually the words ending with the suffix -ly are adverbs, however, there are exceptions, such as the adjectives: lovely (kind), friendly (friendly), lonely (alone), etc.

Some adverbs have an irregular shape and are irregular, that is, they do not maintain any orthographic proximity relationship with the corresponding adjective. This is the case, for example, with the adjective good (good) and the adverb well (good).

Classification: adverb list

Check out the information below, learn about the different types of adverbs and see sequences with the main adverbs in English.

Affirmation: certainly (certainly); evidently (evidently); indeed (without a doubt); obviously (obviously); surely (certainly); Yes).

He is certainly waiting for you to call back. (He's certainly been waiting for you to call him back.)

Denial: no, not (no).

I am not in the mood to go to the movies. (I'm not in the mood to go to the movies.)

Doubt: maybe (possibly); chance (perhaps); perhaps (maybe); possibly (possibly).

Perhaps she won't come. (Maybe she won't come.)

Frequency: daily (daily); monthly (monthly); occassionally (occasionally); often (often); yearly (yearly); rarely (rarely); weekly (weekly).

they travel to their parent's yealy. (They travel to their parents' home annually.)

Intensity: completely (completely); enough; entirely (entirely); equally (equally); exactly (exactly); greatly(greatly); largely (largely); little (little); merely (merely); much; nearly (almost); pretty (very); quite (completely); rather (very); slightly (slightly); if (sufficiently); throughly (completely); too (too much); utterly (totally); very (very); wholly (entirely).

he loves her very much. (He loves her very much.)

Place: Above (above); anywhere (anywhere); around; bellow (below); everywhere (everywhere); far (far); here (here); hither (hither); near (near); nowhere (nowhere); there (there); thither (over there); where (where); yonder (beyond).

There's a very good Italian restaurant near here. (There is a very good Italian restaurant near here.)

Mode: actively (actively); amiss (wrongly); mal (bad); boldly (boldly); faithfully (faithfully); fast (quickly); fiercely; gladly (joyfully); ill (evil); quickly (quickly); purposely (on purpose); simply (simply).

Slow down! You're driving too fast! (Slowly! You're driving too fast!)

Order: firstly (first); secondly (secondly); thirdly (third).

Firstly I'd like to thank you for all your support. (First of all, I would like to thank you for all your support.)

Time: already (already); always (always); early (early); formerly (formerly); hereafter (hereinafter); immediately (immediately); late (afternoon); lately (lately); never (never); now (now); presently (within little); shortly (coming soon); soon (briefly); still (still); then (then); today (today); tomorrow (tomorrow); when (when); yesterday (yesterday).

you never listen to me! (You never listen to me!)

Interrogatives: how (how); when (when); where (where); why.

When will you travel to Brazil? (When are you going to travel to Brazil?)

Position of adverbs in English

The placement of an adverb in a sentence usually follows two basic orders:

Adverb + verb + object (adverb + verb + object)

He frequently arrives late. (He is often late.)

Verb + object + adverb. (verb + object + adverb)

she sings very well. (She sings very well.)

Check below some tips to know how to position the adverb correctly in sentences.

before the main verb

As a general rule, the adverb should be placed before the main verb.

He always drinks coffee after lunch. (He always drinks coffee after lunch.)

After the auxiliary verb

Whenever a sentence has an auxiliary verb and it is not the verb to be, the adverb must be placed immediately after it.

She has never been to Australia. (She has never been to Australia.)

Do not place between a verb and an object

Adverbs are generally not placed between a verb and an object.

I never drink alcoholic beverages. (I never drink alcoholic beverages.)

Two or more adverbs in the sentence

If in the same sentence there is the occurrence of two or more adverbs (or adverbial phrases), the following order to be followed will be defined by the adverb type:

Subject + verb + manner adverb + place adverb + time adverb

They sang well at the concert yesterday. (They sang well at the show yesterday.)

Two or more adverbs so

In case the sentence has two or more adverbs in a mode, the adverb that constitutes a smaller word, that is, with fewer letters, will be placed before the longer adverb.