Adverbs

This page explains the difficulty of adverbs for English language learners.

@ Adverbs can be a problem for some learners of English, particularly learners whose own language does not have a separate adverb form. ~ In German, for example, the adjective and adverb are the same; e.g. Er ist schnell / Er fährt schnell = He is quick / He drives quickly .

So it is not very surprising that German learners often say sentences such as He drives very careful . She sang very bad . Of course, adverbs are usually formed by adding -ly to the adjective, so the correct sentences would be He drives very carefully. She sang very badly.

However, even those learners whose own language does have a separate adverb form can have problems with this aspect of English. There are two main reasons for this.

Firstly, not all adjectives can be converted to adverbs simply by adding -ly . For example, although you can convert pretty to an adverb, e.g. She smiled prettily , you cannot do the same with ugly. He always dresses very uglily is wrong; you have to say something like: He always dresses in a very ugly way.

Secondly, some adverbs which look like they are formed from the corresponding adjective, in fact have a different meaning. For example, highly is not the correct word to use to describe a high jumper. She can jump very highly is wrong. The adverb highly is used as a synonym for extremely or very or strongly ; e.g. She is highly respected ; I can highly recommend this book .


Quiz

See how much you know about English adverbs by trying the following quiz questions.

1. Complete the second sentences below with a suitable adverb.

Example: She is a quick runner. She runs quickly.

  • She is a good driver. - She drives ... .
  • He is a slower worker than me. - He works ... than me.
  • She is a worse singer than me. - She sings ... than me.
  • He is a fast runner. - He runs ... .
  • He is a hard worker. - He works ... .
  • She gave me a friendly smile. - She smiled at me ... .
  • This is a daily paper. - This paper is published ... .
  • She is a fine swimmer. - She swims ... .
  • She is a good driver. - She drives well.
  • He is a slower worker than me. - He works more slowly than me.
  • She is a worse singer than me. - She sings worse than me.
  • He is a fast runner. - He runs fast.
  • He is a hard worker. - He works hard.
  • She gave me a friendly smile. - She smiled at me in a friendly way.
  • This is a daily paper. - This paper is published daily.
  • She is a fine swimmer. - She swims very well. (See below for an explanation of the word finely.)

2. The following adverbs have a different meaning from the adjectives from which they seem to be derived. Can you state their meaning?

Example: hardly = only a little, scarcely (I hardly know him!)

  • flatly
  • lately
  • fairly
  • barely
  • shortly
  • finely
  • surely
  • flatly = completely, totally (He flatly refused to help me.)
  • lately = recently (Have you seen any good films lately?)
  • fairly = a little, quite (She's fairly good at chess.)
  • barely = only just (He'd drunk so much that he was barely able to stand.)
  • shortly = soon (My sister's going to have a baby shortly.)
  • finely can mean different things, including carefully (Michael Schumacher's car has a finely-tuned engine.)
  • surely also has different meanings, but one of them is to express surprise (Surely he didn't say that! = I'm surprised he said that!)

There are several interactive quizzes on adjectives and adverbs elsewhere on this site. You can find them in the Other grammar drop-down list on the Grammar index page.