Adverbs are different to adjectives. Where adjectives describe nouns, adverbs describe verbs.
She chewed her food nervously.
He was running strangely.
Agnes bounces her cheeks annoyingly.
It's easy to remember because the word verb is part of the word adverb!
Many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to the end of an adjective.
Adjective | sad | hungry | quick | stupid | loud |
Adverb (+ly) | sadly | hungrily | quickly | stupidly | loudly |
Notice that when an adjective ends in -y, we usually replace the y with an i before adding -ly.
There are different types of adverbs to describe:
manner | These are adverbs to answer the question 'How?' They describe the way something is done or is acting. | Examples: carefully, well, slowly |
possibility | These are adverbs that shows how sure or unsure we are about something. | Examples: definitely, probably, maybe |
time | These are adverbs to answer the question 'When?' | Examples: yesterday, recently, soon |
opinion | These adverbs give an opinion about a whole sentence or idea. | Examples: obviously, unfortunately, surprisingly |