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AN OVERVIEW OF ADVERBS FOR THE 

PROFICIENT USE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

 

LAURETTA CHINYEAKA 

 

ABSTRACT 

This study highlights an in-depth study of adverbs for 

easy understanding and appropriate use. The paper 

introduces the adjective to distinguish it from the adverb. 

Sequel to this explanation of what adverbs are, types, their 

functions, the words or groups of words they modify and 

their notable significance in the English language are 

established. An adverb is perhaps the most difficult 

element to identify in an English sentence. This could be 

attributed to the fact that an adverb can usually be shifted 

around (a movable modifier) and as such it is often 

difficult to pin it down to a fixed position in the sentence 

structure. Furthermore, only one type of adverbial adjunct 

(Adjunct of place) may occur as obligatory element in the 

structure. To make matters more complicated, any one of 

the four major classes of words can also perform the 

function of an adverb in the sentence. It is, therefore, 

often taken that if a word cannot be placed with any of the 

three other classes, it must be an adverb. As a result of 

this negative test, the different items that are generally 

labeled as adverbials have acted as a dustbin of English 

grammar. Again, both adjectives and adverbs as modifiers 

have different uses. People and ESL learners in particular 

are not always certain about which modifier to use in a 

particular situation. The misuse and ignorance prevalent 

in the use of adverbs prompted this paper. This study will 

be of immense help to both students and teachers in the 

second language situation. 

 



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Introduction 

Words are the basic rudiments of the human language. 

They follow a logical pattern in sentence formation with 

each performing a peculiar function. Eyisi (15) observes 

that when we group them into various classes by taking 

cognisance of their different functions, we refer to each 

class as a part of speech. Norwood (67) notes however 

that the part of speech of a word depends on how the word 

is used in a sentence. He explains that the same word can 

be one of several parts of speech, depending on its use in 

a particular sentence. He illustrates this with the word 'but' 

which is commonly used as a conjunction, as in the 

sentence: 

Mary went to the beach but I stayed at home. 

 On the other hand, the same word 'but' is a preposition in 

the sentence 

Everyone went to the championship game but me. 

The English language according to Eyisi (15) has seven 

well-defined parts of speech although some grammarians 

recognize eight or more. 

The English parts of speech are divided into two main 

categories, namely: 

i. The major parts of speech 

ii. The minor parts of speech 

The major parts of speech include the nouns, verbs, 

adjectives and adverbs. They are so referred because they 

belong to the open system and so can admit new 

members. Words that constitute each of these word-

classes are unlimited because they continue to grow as 

new words are added to their groups. 

The minor parts of speech on the other hand include 

pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions. They are 

referred to as the closed system because they do not admit 

new members. The number of English words called 



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pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions are more or less 

fixed. Some characteristics which distinguish the major 

parts of speech from the minor ones as pointed out by 

Eyisi (16) are: 

1. It is only the major parts of speech that have 

lexical or dictionary meanings. 

2. They constitute an open system and so admit new 

members. 

3. They constitute the largest part of the vocabulary 

of the English language. 

4. They undergo inflectional changes. This implies 

that each of them can change its form according to 

the demands of sentence construction. 

The minor parts of speech she states, lack all the above 

characteristics for which the major parts of speech are 

recognized. 

1. They do not have dictionary meanings 

2. They do not admit new words; they constitute a 

closed system. 

3. They are limited in the English vocabulary 

4. They do not undergo inflectional changes. 

The adverbs as already noted belong to the major parts of 

speech which are also described as the open system. 

Adverb according to The Complete English Companion is 

"a term used in the grammatical classification of words to 

refer to a heterogeneous group of items whose most 

frequent function is to specify the mode of the verb". 

 

What are Adverbs? 

Adverbs like adjectives describe other words or make 

other words more specific. An adverb is a word that 

modifies a verb, an adjective or an adverb. Langan (485) 

points out that the adverb in describing verbs, adjectives 

and other adverbs usually end in -ly: 



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The referee suddenly stopped the fight 

(The adverb suddenly describes the verb 

stopped). Her pink dress is absolutely 

beautiful (The adverb absolutely describes 

the adjective beautiful). 

The auctioneer spoke so terribly fast that I 

couldn't understand him. (The adverb 

terribly describes the adverb fast). 

 

Recognizing and Using Adverbs 

It is often widely thought especially by ESL learners that 

the ending -ly is a sufficient sign that a word is an adverb 

but this is not true. Much as a large number of adverbs do 

end in -ly, this does not mean that the -ly ending is wholly 

a dependable guide to identifying an adverb. According to 

Boadi, et al (102-103), there are some reasonable number 

of words with -ly endings which are not adverbs. These 

include words like brotherly, sisterly, fatherly, masterly, 

deadly, sickly. Although they have -ly endings, these 

words are classed as adjectives not adverbs. 

On the other hand, there are many adverbs such as here, 

there, seldom, up, down, never, often, which do not end in 

-ly. Certain formal markers according to them however do 

exist although none of them is a certain indication that a 

particular word is an adverb:  

l. A-prefixed to nouns, adjectives and verbs, e.g aloud, 

abroad, away, astern, ahead, astir, anew etc,  

2. wise affixed to nouns: lengthwise, air wise etc.  

3. wards or -ward affixed to a limited sub-class of  

nouns: backwards; forwards; homewards; etc. 

4. Some-, any-, every-, and no- prefixed to certain 

nouns and structural words: anyway; somewhere; 

anywhere; everywhere; nowhere; sometimes; 

anyhow etc., 



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5. Certain adverbs are identical with prepositions 

except that in a sentence the adverb usually 

receives a primary stress and the corresponding 

prepositions a weak one. 

The guard stood [] by (adverb) 

The guard [], stood by the [] wall (preposition) 

Others in this sub-class are: in, out, up, down, 

over, under, inside, outside, out, around, about, 

above, across, after, along, before, behind, below, 

beneath, between, beyond, near, off, on, to, 

underneath, with, within, past, round, since, 

through, etc. 

Types of Adverbs 

According to World Bank Reference Set Grammar and 

Style Guide (79) adverbs usually answer the questions 

How? When? Where or To what extent? 

Examples 

Mark walked slowly 

(Slowly modifies the verb walked and tells how) 

 I will leave soon 

(Soon modifies the verb leave and tells when) 

 Let's go out. 

(Out modifies the verb go and tells where) 

 Sally is not late. 

(Not modifies the adjective late and tells to what extent) 

The elderly man moved quite gingerly. 

(Quite modifies the adverb gingerly and tells to what 

extent) 

Adverbs that tell ‘how' are called adverbs of manner. 

Some examples are beautifully, energetically, happily, 

quickly, fast. Adverbs that tell 'when ' are called adverbs 

of time. Some examples are now, soon, then, before, later. 

Adverbs that tell 'where' are called adverbs of place. Some 

examples are in, out, near, up, down, forward, there. Some 



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adverbs of place can also function as prepositions. 

Examples:  

Let's climb up 

The kitten climbed up the tree (preposition)  

Adverbs that tell to what extent are called adverbs of 

degree. Some examples are very, extremely, rather, 

somewhat, quite, and almost. The above terms (adverbs of 

manner, time, place, and degree) classify adverbs 

according to their meaning. Another way to classify 

adverbs according to Grammar and Style Guide (80) is by 

their function. Interrogative adverbs introduce questions. 

Some examples are: 

Why, when, where and how  

When did you go? 

Where have you been? 

Relative adverbs introduce subordinate clauses. Some 

examples are: when, why. 

I will meet you when classes are 

over. 

Do you know why Max was angry?

 
Conjunctive adverbs (sometimes called transitional 

adverbs) join two independent clauses or sentences and 

modify them. Some examples are: hence, however, 

moreover, nevertheless, otherwise, still, therefore, thus. 

We followed the recipe; however, 

the casserole was not so good as 

we'd hoped. 

Sara liked the dress; nevertheless, 

she did not buy it. 

Functions of Adverbs  

As noted in Houghton Mifflin English Grammar and 

Composition (39, 42), the most common function of an 

adverb is to modify a verb. An adverb that modifies a verb 



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modifies the entire verb phrase which includes the main 

verb and its auxiliary verbs. 

 

 

 

The driver was honking his horn desperately. 

 

An adverb that modifies a verb does not always appear 

next to the verb in the sentence. 

 

Next to VERB The police suddenly arrived at the scene. 

 

 

AT BEGINNING Suddenly the police arrived at the scene 

 

 

AT END The police arrived at the scene suddenly 

 

An adverb sometimes interrupts a verb phrase. 

An adverb in this position modifies all parts of the verb 

phrase. 

Adverbs may also modify adjectives. An adverb that 

modifies an adjective usually comes just before the 

adjective that it modifies. Examples 

Our dog is quite deaf [Quite tells to what degree 

the dog is deaf] 

Your ideas are usually brilliant [Usually tells how 

often the ideas are brilliant] 

Adverbs that modify adjectives are sometimes called 

qualifying adverbs or qualifier (Glencoe English 279). 

Sometimes adverbs modify adverbs. Such adverbs usually 

come just before the adverbs that they modify, and they 

usually tell to what degree or extent: Examples: 



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We were laughing quite loudly. [Loudly is an 

adverb that modifies ‘were laughing’. ‘Quite’ tells 

to what extent we were laughing loudly] 

The principal spoke rather sharply. [Sharply is an 

adverb that modifies ‘spoke’. ‘Rather’ tells to what 

extent the principal spoke sharply]. 

An adverb, because it specifies the degree or intensity of 

the modified adjective or adverb, such an adverb 

according to Prentice Hall Writing and Grammar (390) is 

often called an intensifier. Quirk and Greenbaum (127) 

add that the most frequently used intensifier is ‘very’. 

Others include so, pretty, rather, unusually, quite, 

unbelievably (tall). Many are restricted to a small set of 

lexical items e.g. deeply (anxious), highly (intelligent), 

strikingly (handsome), sharply (critical). Many 

intensifiers, they note, can modify adjectives, adverbs and 

verbs alike. 

Adverbs as premodifiers of adjective may also be 'view 

point' as in politically expedient (‘expedient from a 

political point of view’), technically possible, 

theoretically sound. They pointed out that viewpoint 

adjuncts that appear after the noun phrase are related to 

the pre-modifying adjective within the phrase. 

A good paper editorially can also be a good paper 

commercially. 

Or 

An editorially good paper can also be a 

commercially good paper. 

 

Adverbs as Parts of Verbs 

Adverbs also function as parts of verbs. As exposited in 

Prentice Hall Writing and Grammar (390), some verbs 

require an adverb to complete their meaning. Adverbs 

used this way are considered part of the verb. However, 



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an adverb functioning as part of a verb does not answer 

the usual questions for adverbs. 

Example: The tractor backed up alongside the field. 

Nouns Functioning as Adverbs 

Several nouns can function as adverbs that answer the 

questions Where? or When? Some of these words are 

home, yesterday, today, tomorrow, mornings, afternoons, 

evenings, nights, week, month, and year. 

 

Nouns used as Adverbs 

Nouns As Adverbs 

Evenings are restful times. I work evenings 

My home is miles from here. 

 

Let's head home 

 

Adverbs as Adverbials 

Quirk and Greenbaum (126) note that an adverb may 

function as adverbial, a constituent distinct from subject, 

verb, object and complement, Adverbials according to 

Woodsand Coppieters (75) give additional information 

about an action, happening or state as described by the 

rest of the sentence. Oji adds that the adverbials include 

not only single-word adverbs but also particles and 

phrases. The term, he notes, is therefore more embracing 

than 'adverb' (60). 

They have a number of different forms: 

• Adverbs, adverb phrases, noun phrases, 

prepositional phrases. 



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• Finite clauses, non-finite clauses (infinitives, -ing 

and — ed participles), verbal clauses. 

Quirk and Greenbaum (126) on their part postulate three 

classes of adverbial: adjuncts, disjuncts and conjuncts. 

Adjuncts are integrated within the structure of the clause 

to 

at least some extent. 

Example: They are waiting outside. 

 I can now understand it. 

 He spoke to me calmly. 

Disjuncts and conjuncts however are not integrated within 

the clause. According to them, semantically disjuncts 

express an evaluation of what is being said either with 

respect to the form of the communication or to its content. 

 

Example: Frankly, I am tired. 

Fortunately, no one complained  

They are probably at home. 

Semantically, conjuncts have a connective function. 

They indicate the connection between what is being said 

and what was said before. 

Example: We have complained several times about 

the noise, and yet he does nothing about it. 

 I have not looked into his qualifications. 

He seems very intelligent though. 

In the structure of the sentence, the adverbial function is 

crucial. When the adverbial is absent, the sentence is not 

complete. For instance: 

 

John is in the park SVA 

 

 

 

S      V        A 



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I put the food in the pot . SVA 

 

 

 

S      V        OA 

 

Adverbial Group Types 

Baruah (120), expositing with the headed groups, 

limited the term adverbial group to cover only those 

groups that have an adverb as their head. He states that 

the adverbial group usually consists of a single adverb, 

with or without an intensifier. According to him, the 

adverbial group and all other items that can function as 

an adverb are together known as adverbials. Since an 

adverb too can have degree form just like an adjective, 

the head may also be preceded by the structural words 

such as more, most, less, least or as/so. The common 

adverbial group-types may therefore be 

Type I Head alone, e.g; frequently 

Type 2 intensifier + Head, e.g; very soon 

Type 3 More/most, etc + Head, e.g., more often, as often 

(as). 

More than one adverbial group may occur in the same 

sentence or in the same position in the sentence. Further, 

as already mentioned, many other items may occur in 

these positions and function as an adverb. 

The following according to him are the common 

adverbials: 

i. The adverbial group, e.g. He 

will come very soon. 

ii. The prepositional phrase, 

e.g. He opened the box with 

a knife. 



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iii. Finite clause, e.g. When I 

reached the station, the train 

had already left. 

iv. Non-finite clause, e.g. He 

came to see me. 

 

Classification of Adverbials     

  
Adverbs are, usually, classified according to their 

meaning or their position in the sentence, The 

classification according to meaning  as posited by Baruah 

(123) is essentially a logical one and can  be extended or 

sub-divided according to necessity. Some of the familiar 

classes of this type consists the adverbials of time, 

adverbials of place, adverbials of frequency, adverbials of 

manner etc. 

He points out  that adverbials can also be classified 

according to the three  adverb positions (End-position, 

Mid-position, Front-position). But as already mentioned, 

adverbials are highly mobile  elements and the same 

adverbial may occur in all the three  positions. However, 

some adverbials have their favourite  position in the 

sentence and on this basis it is possible to assign them to 

these positional classes. Here are some common 

adverbials with their typical positions. 

i. Front-position Adverbials   

    
Interrogative Adverbs: although, besides, 

generally, 'however, kindly, otherwise, 

unfortunately, usually, therefore etc. 

ii. Mid-position Adverbials: Already, always, ever, 

frequently, just, merely, never, often, actually, yet 

etc., 

iii. End-position Adverbials  



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Prepositional phrases, clauses, badly, carefully, 

easily, recently, soon, there, well, yesterday etc. 

(Baruah 123). 

Comparison of Adverbs 

According to Quirk and Greenbaum (135) for a small 

number of adverbs, the inflected forms used for 

comparison are identified with those for adjectives. As 

noted in Grammar and Style Guide (80-81) adverbs of 

manner like adjectives may be compared upward and 

downward in three degrees: positive, comparative, and 

superlative. Like adjectives, adverbs can be compared 

upward by two different methods  

1. Most adverbs are compared by using "more" for 

the comparative degree and "most" for the 

superlative degree. 

 

Positive Comparative Superlative 

Happily more happily more happily 

Quickly more quickly most quickly 

Accurately more accurately most accurately 

 

A few adverbs are compared upwards by using -er for the 

comparative degree and -est for the superlative degree. 

Positive Comparative Superlative 

Soon  Sooner Soonest 

Near Nearer Nearest 

Early Earlier Earliest 

 

All adverbs are compared downward by using "less" for 

the comparative degree and "least" for the superlative 

degree. 

Positive Comparative Superlative 

Early less early least early 

Happily less happily least happily 



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Quickly less quickly least quickly 

Accurately less accurately least accurately 

Some adverbs are compared irregularly. 

Positive Comparative Superlative 

Badly Worse Worst 

Far Farther Farthest 

Little Less Least 

Much More Most 

Well Better Best 

 

Distinguishing between Adjective and Adverbs 

It is sometimes difficult to determine whether a word is an 

adjective or an adverb. A large number of adverbs end in -

ly   but so do some adjectives. 

 

 

Adverb The guide yelled loudly 

 

Adjective  The bear seemed friendly. 

Sometimes the same word may be used as either an 

adjective or an adverb. 

 

      
Adverb    Everyone worked hard 

 

 

Adjective     This is hard work 

   
To decide whether a modifier is an adjective or an adverb, 

  figure out what part of speech the modified word is. If 

the   modified word is a noun or a pronoun, the modifier 

is an adjective or an adverb, the modifier is an adverb. 



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You can also tell whether a modifier is an adjective or an 

adverb by deciding which question the modifier answers. 

Adjective Adverb 

1. Which 1. How or in what 

manner? 

2. What kind? 2. When? 

3. How many? 3. Where? 

4.  How often?  

5. To what extent or degree? 

 

Adjective- Jan is .an early riser  [Think: Earlv tells 

what kind of riser, 

which is a noun. 

Early is therefore an 

adjective] 

Adverb Jan left early. [Think: Early tells when 

Jan left, which is an adverb. 

Early is therefore an 

adverb] (Culled from 

Houghton Mifflin English 

Grammar and Composition 

43 - 44) 

Significance of Adverbs 

Adverbs are useful tools of language. Apart from giving 

or expanding information about the verb, adverbs specify 

the degree or intensity of the modified adjective or adverb 

in which case it is called an intensifier. For example: He 

worked very competently (Adverb modifying adverb). 

They are also required to complete the meaning of some 

verbs. In this position, they are considered as part of a 

verb. An adverb functioning as part of a verb does not 

answer the usual questions of adverbs e.g. 'The tractor 

backed up alongside the field. Adverbs, when they 

function as adverbials, talk about the whole clause. For 



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example, Definitely, that is what they meant. They could 

also be used to portray attitude of movement indicating 

negativity as in He walked slowly to the police cell. 

Conclusion 

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or 

another adverb. Functionally, adverbs describe other 

words or make other words more specific. A good 

knowledge of this major part of speech will enhance the 

proficient use of the English language. 

 

 

 

 

 

WORKS CITED 

Baruah, T. C. The English Teaching Handbook. New 

Delhi: Sterling Publishers Private Limited, 2006. 

Print 

Boadi, L. A., D. W. Grieve and B. Nwankwo. 

Grammatical Structure and its Teaching. Ibadan: 

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Brown, Ann Cole. Houghten English Grammar and 

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Eyisi, Joy. A. Grammar of English Composition Revised 

Edition. Nimo: Rex Charles and Patrick Ltd., 

2006. Print. 

Glencoe English. Encino: Glecoe Publishing Co, Inc., 

1981. Print 

Langan, John. English Skills Ninth Edition. New York: 

McGraw: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2008. 

Print 



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Norwood, Selby. Essential College English: Grammar and 

Punctuation Workbook Third Edition. New York: 

Happer Collins Publishers, 1991. Print 

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