WORLD OF ENGLISH

Adverbs are an important part of speech. They usually answer questions such as how?, where?, when?,how often? and how much?

 

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man ran quickly). In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the verb that it modifies is in italics.

• John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)

• Afterwards she smoked a cigarette. (When did she smoke?)

• Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)

 

But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works verywell).

 

Look at these examples:

• Modify an adjective:- He is really handsome. (How handsome is he?)- That was extremely kind of you.

• Modify another adverb:- She drives incredibly slowly. (How slowly does she drive?)- He drives extremely fast.

 

Note that adverbs have other functions, too. They can:

• Modify a whole sentence: Obviously, I can't know everything.

• Modify a prepositional phrase: It's immediately inside the door

 

Now then. Have a go at this interactive test on