English Grammar: An Introduction

There are three main types of Adverbs. They can often be sorted out by posing questions to find out what kind of information they add to the verb. If you look back to 2.1. you will see that you can combine the Nouns in (1) with the Adjectives in (3) to produce acceptable structures like "silly hat" or "yellow canary". You can also produce meaningful combinations from the Verbs in (2) and the Adverbs in (4): "wore yesterday", "chirp sweetly". However, you cannot combine (1) and (4) or (2) and (3) in this way. This shows that Adjectives generally modify Nouns while Adverbs modify Verbs.

2.6.1. Circumstance Adverbs

CIRCUMSTANCE ADVERBS tell us more about the action of the verb.

	QUESTION	ADVERB	Sub-type
17.	How did he sing?	Badly	Manner
18.	When did he leave?	Yesterday	Time
19.	Where is she now?	Here	Place
20.	How badly did he sing?	Extremely,	Degree
		Very	(see 3.4.6.1.)

2.6.2. Attitude Adverbs

ATTITUDE ADVERBS tell us something about the speaker's opinion of the information communicated. They therefore often occur at the beginnings of sentences:

2.6.3. Connective Adverbs

CONNECTIVE ADVERBS form a link between units in a piece of discourse, such as sentences (21) and (23). Common ones include however, so, therefore, yet, too, also, and adverbs indicating a position in a sequence, such as firstly, secondly, finally.

Note that a sentence may contain more than one Adverb. Adverbs can often occupy different positions within a sentence, a feature which can be exploited for stylistic effect. They also have many different forms, which can make them difficult to identify. Some adverbs are compared with more and most, as in more/most sweetly.

This sentence, spotted in the underground, would be clearer if the position of the Adverb were changed:

24. Open the windows only for ventilation