What is an Adverb?
Goal: Students will learn about adverbs and their function.
Adverbs are a very broad collection of words that may describe how, where, or when an action took place. They may also express the viewpoint of the speaker about the action, the intensity of an adjective or another adverb, or several other functions.
Traditionally considered to be a single part of speech, adverbs perform a wide variety of functions, which makes it difficult to treat them as a single, unified category. Adverbs normally carry out these functions by answering questions such as:
- When? She always arrives early.
- How? He drives carefully.
- Where? They go everywhere together.
- In what way? She eats slowly.
- To what extent? It is terribly hot.
It’s easy to identify adverbs in these sentences.
Adverbs and Verbs
One of the things adverbs do is modify verbs. This means that they describe the way an action is happening.
Phillip sings loudly in the shower.
Adverbs and Adjectives
Adverbs can also modify adjectives and other adverbs. Often, the purpose of the adverb is to add a degree of intensity to the adjective.
The woman is quite pretty.
Adverbs and Other Adverbs
You can use an adverb to describe another adverb. In fact, if you wanted to, you could use several.
Phillip sings rather enormously too loudly.
Watch this video so you can have a better understanding.
Activity:
Complete the texts about each person with the adjectives & adverbs from the tables:
. Justin
dangerously
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early
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carefully
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well
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fast
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Justin starts work (1) early in the mornings. He’s a bus driver. His job is difficult, but he does it (2) . Some people drive (3) and (4) , but Justin doesn’t. He drives (5) .
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B. Chris
perfectly
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early
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nicely
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busy
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This is Chris. He’s a barista at a coffee shop. He also starts work (6) because the cafe is really (7) in the mornings. Chris needs to speak to customers (8) and make their coffee (9) .
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C. Isabella & John
quickly
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late
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expensive
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delicious
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Isabella and John wake up (10) every day because they work at night. They’re cooks at an (11) restaurant. As cooks, Isabella and John need to make food (12) for the restaurant’s customers. If the food doesn’t taste (13) , customers get angry.
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