Back to Basics: Adverbs

If you've ever hung around writing forums or even just google searched "adverbs," you may have the notion they are evil words that should be banned from the language. This is a notion rooted in writing conventions. It has it's place, but it is not the end all, be all for this group of words.

We will discuss adverbs today in a grammatical sense. I will touch on them in writing fiction in another article.

​What is an adverb?

An adverb is exactly what it sounds like. It adds to a verb. Adverbs are words that describe or modify verbs.  

He runs fast.

She sings beautifully.

The dog quietly whimpered after being scolded for chewing the new shoe.

​In the examples above, the adverb is underlined, and the verb it modifies is in bold.

Adverbs tell when, where, why, how, and to what extent something is done. Notice the two questions left out of the usual six from the list of questions writing needs to answer? Adverbs don't touch who or what because those are always made up of nouns, not verbs.

​The -ly Rule

Adverbs can often be easy to spot. Think of all the words you know that end in -ly. Most of those words are adverbs. If the word has another form without the -ly on the end, your chances of it being an adverb are pretty much 100%.

In descriptive words with these two forms, the root word is the adjective form, and the form ending in -ly is the adverb form of the word.

They paint wonderfully.

They are a wonderful painter.

Take a look at the examples above. In the first sentence, wonderfully is an adverb describing how they paint. In the second sentence, wonderful describes what kind of painter they are. Painter is a noun, not a verb.

However, like most things in English, there are exceptions to the rule. Not all adverbs end in -ly.

Often can describe the frequency something is done in, but "oftenly" isn't a word. Likewise, something can never be done, but "neverly" isn't a word. You can almost do something, but "almostly" isn't a word.

Most of the time, it will just "sound" wrong to you if you are a native English speaker and attempt to add -ly to an adverb where it does not have that as an option. But when in doubt, dictionaries have the different possible variances of words. Look it up.

​Problem Words: Good and Well

We have already seen where good tends to be irregular when it comes to its comparative and superlative forms, so it ought not be too much of a surprise to see it is the same here. Good is always an adjective with well being its adverb form.

The team plays basketball well. (verb and its advert)

They are a good basketball team. (adjective and its noun.)

​Watch out for linking verbs.

Linking verbs can make telling whether you need the adverb or adjective form of a descriptive word tricky, especially when they are dealing with the senses. Read these sentences carefully and ask yourself questions regarding them to determine which form should be used.

I love how (sweet/sweetly) vanilla smells.

Does vanilla have a nose to use for smelling? No. Sweet describes the smell of vanilla, not what it does, so you need the adjective form.

The little girl looks (happy/happily).

The little girl looks (happy/happily) at the playground where her mother is taking her.

Is the little girl looking at something in the first sentence, or is the sentence describing her expression? Because the sentence describes her expression, the sentence needs the adjective form of the word. What about the second sentence? The little girl is looking at the playground, and happily is describing how she is looking at the playground. Therefore, we need the adverb form of the word. 

​Okay, so why are adverbs so hated?

This is a completely different issue, having more to do with style and impact than grammatical rules, though it is related. So I will cover this in our next lesson on February 11.

Thank you for reading, and as always, feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I strive to answer all comments within 24 hours.

An elementary version of this lesson may be downloaded here.