And Now, a Word on Adverbs

Beginning? Middle? End?

My students, in general, do not know what to do with their adverbs -- they will often "like very much this film" or "read again this book" or on occasion even elicit the dreaded "speak very well English," though I hope it's only to see my face writhe in agonizing grimaces as I react.

All right, first of all, let's try and define what we mean by these little beasties.  Adverbs are words that modify verbs -- very simple indeed.  Adverbials are groups of two or more words that modify, usually adding to, verbs.  In English, adverbs are very easy to distinguish because many of them end in /-ly/, like their Modern German second cousins end in /-lich/ and their Dutch first cousins end in /-lijk/.  Romance languages have similar constructions:  French /-ment/, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian /-mente/, Catalan /-ment/, with Romanian having three, namely /-eşti/, /-iş/, and /-âş/¹.  Other languages will obviously have other constructs.

The Irregulars

Keep in mind that English has a few irregular adverbs which, unfortunately, you're going to have to memorize.  It's a good thing then that they are among² the most common words in English:

One of these adverbs, hard, actually changes meaning when combined with the /-ly/ suffix:

He worked hard.  = He did a lot of work.

He hardly worked.  = He did not do a lot of work.

In older texts you might also see:

He held his ground fastly opposite his adversary. = He held on tight.

Fast or the archaic fastly used to mean fixed, steadfast or resolute, but the /-ly/ suffix was dropped in the 18th century. In other words, the sentence He held on fast, is correct even today, but He drove fastly, is very incorrect.  Quite the difference...

Many of my students are also confused by the word enough, since it can come both before and after the word is modifies.

Do we have enough time to finish?

Do we have time enough to finish?

Please don't worry -- both of these questions are absolutely correct.  Enough is yet another example of a word that is both an adjective and an adverb, and therefore could be added to the chart above.  However, according to the dictionary, enough as an adjective may come before or after the noun that it modifies:

I don't have money enough. = I don't have enough money.

They have enough energy to run a marathon. = 

They have energy enough to run a marathon. 

She speaks enough Japanese to understand. = She speaks Japanese enough to understand.

However, in combination with other adverbs, it comes clearly after the expression at or near the end of the clause:

She speaks Japanese well enough to understand. ≠ 

She speaks well enough Japanese to understand.

Types of Adverbs / Adverbials

As with other words, there are different types of adverbs.  Each type has its own use and thus may take a different place in the sentence.  They are all modifiers (see blog page) and thus must be treated as such; below, they are listed in alphabetical order, with incomplete lists of examples.

• Degree -- describing to what extent or how much the action takes place:  absolutely, awfully, completely, totally, a little / a bit, a lot, somewhat, and so on.
• Evaluative -- describing what the speaker or writer thinks of part or of the entire passage:  surprisingly, amazingly, unfortunately, personally, ideally, and so on.
• Focusing -- describing a part of the sentence or paragraph which deserves the reader's special attention:  particularly, generally, especially, largely, just, simply, and so on.
• Frequency -- describing how often the action takes place:  always, usually, occasionally, sometimes, rarely, seldom, ever/never, and so on.
• Manner -- describing how the action takes place:  heavily, heartily, with gusto, accurately, with great caution, and so on.
• Place -- describing where the action takes place: nearby, there, upstairs, outside, and so on.
• Sequence -- describing the order in which the different parts of an action or different actions take place:  first, next, then, last, after, finally, and so on.
• Time -- describing when the action takes place:  tomorrow, yesterday, last week, next week, this morning, already/yet, lately, recently, and so on.
• Transition -- describing how one (usually) paragraph or (sometimes) sentence relates to the one(s) before or after it:  nevertheless, therefore, consequently, however, on the other hand, and so on.

Syntactic Use

A. Adverbs Clearly Modifying the Verb
Very often, adverbs will be placed right next to the verb that they modify.  If you take this sentence, you understand it perfectly without any adverbs at all:

She waited, talking on the phone, drinking coffee, and pacing up and down the hall.

Now, if you include the adverb impatiently, you can see how different the meanings of the different versions become.  All are grammatically correct, since grammer, in this example, is a secondary consideration to syntax, and the syntax will determine the semantics that the speaker or writer seeks to give her/his sentence (for legibility's sake, I have underlined impatiently each time):

1. Impatiently, she waited, talking on the phone, drinking coffee, and pacing up and down the hall.
2. She waited impatiently, talking on the phone, drinking coffee, and pacing up and down the hall.
3. She waited, talking impatiently on the phone, drinking coffee, and pacing up and down the hall.
4. She waited, talking on the phone, impatiently drinking coffee, and pacing up and down the hall.
5. She waited, talking on the phone, drinking coffee impatiently, and pacing up and down the hall.
6. She waited, talking on the phone, drinking coffee, and pacing impatiently up and down the hall.
7. She waited, talking on the phone, drinking coffee, and pacing up and down the hall impatiently.

Now, what does each mean semantically?

1. This is quite a statement, as the author wishes to highlight the adverb by placing it apart from the rest of the sentence, thereby creating an atmosphere right at the beginning of her/his description.
2. Here, the adverb describes the first -- and probably main -- verb in the sentence, creating an atmosphere into which all of the other actions feed.  How does one exhibit impatience?  By talking on the phone, drinking coffee and pacing.
3. The person may be waiting, but by talking impatiently, this is the only one of the three activities where we see the impatience coming through in her/his behavior.
4. In this example, the person shows her/his nervousness and impatience through her/his manner of drinking the coffee.
5. A slight difference in semantics here, because in all liklihood the person's impatience is driving her/him to drink coffee.
6. This is most likely the weakest of the 7 examples, since pacing in itself is a sign of impatience.  Probably best not to use it then.
7. The final example describes how the person in the example is pacing, since the expression up and down the hall must come before the adverb.
8. Oh, an eighth?  Yes, because an example is not listed here since it creates a redundant usage (pacing = impatience):  She waited, talking on the phone, drinking coffee, and impatiently pacing up and down the hall.

B. Most Adverb Usages
Not all adverbs or adverbials are created the same.  Some tend to go at the beginning according to modern writing conventions (i.e., generally accepted usages).  Some tend to go in the middle of sentences, and most tend to go at the end of sentences.  I specify the verb as tend to since for the most part native speaker writers put them in these places.  However, there are always exceptions to these guidelines -- so many, in fact, that we really cannot call them rules.  Look at the example in the image below:

Any word that you, as a writer, wish to highlight may be placed separately from the rest of the sentence and indicated by a comma.  This sets it apart from the rest of the sentence and thus gives it a de facto accentuation.  Use this chart as a guideline and always, in case of doubt, check with a native speaker around you:

When in doubt, you may always leave your adverb until the end of the sentence after any direct (or indirect) objects:

I speak very well Spanish. => I speak Spanish very well.

He is doing a lot this same route. => He does this same route a lot.

Please can you every time give me the translation. =>
Can you please give me the translation every time.

Here, the only exception would be focusing, sequencing or transition adverbs, since their usage at the beginning of sentences -- and therefore in direct proximity to the statements to which they make reference -- is self-evident:

I chose the less expensive option consequently. =>
Consequently, I chose the less expensive option.

We cannot go backwards nevertheless. =>
Nevertheless, we cannot go backwards.

They would never have spoken even privately about this. =>

Even privately they never would have spoken about this. ORThey never would have spoken about this even privately. 

The first two examples are easier than the last, since the comma separating them from the rest of the sentence makes them more readable.  This final example is even worse than the other two, since it is a squinting modifier (see blog page), since we do not know whether even privately modifies spoken or about this or something else in the sentence.

Practice

For more practice, log on to this exercise (in several parts) to see if you have understood adverbs and adverbials.

¹Dindelegan, Gabriela Pană.  The Grammar of Romanian.  Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013.
²Among = US / amongst = GB