Mastering English Adverbs: Usage and Placement

Posted on Jul 13, 2025 in Linguistics and Applied Languages

Understanding Adverbs in English Grammar

The word adverb suggests the idea of adding to the meaning of a verb. It is the word class that usually provides extra information about the action in the sentence by modifying a verb, i.e., by telling us how, when, where, etc., something happens. E.g.: Paganini played the violin beautifully.

What Adverbs Modify

Besides verbs, adverbs can modify:

Adjectives: very good, awfully hungry
Other Adverbs: very soon, awfully quickly
Nouns: The man here is a doctor.
Determiners: They paid almost all the money.
Numbers: I have over 20 problems to solve today.
Indefinite Pronouns: Nearly everybody sent the reply letter.
Prepositional Phrases: You’re entirely in the wrong.
Complete Sentences: Luckily, I won the first prize.

Types of Adverbs

We may distinguish three types of adverbs:

Simple Adverbs: (e.g., just, only, out)
Compound Adverbs: Formed by combining two or more elements into a single word (e.g., somehow, therefore, somewhere)
Derivational Adverbs:

Derivational Adverbs: Forming Adverbs

A great number of adverbs, particularly those of manner, derive from adjectives by the addition of -ly. E.g.: Patient/patiently, nice/nicely. Or they derive from other adverbs, e.g.: Usual/usually, near/nearly.

Other Particles Used to Form Adverbs

Other particles used are:

-wise: Let’s walk clockwise.
-fashion: He likes to dress schoolboy-fashion.
-ward(s): Did you travel southwards?
-ways: Move sideways now.
-style: Don’t dance cowboy-style.

Adjectives vs. Adverbs Ending in -ly

It must be said that some –ly words are adjectives rather than adverbs, e.g., friendly, cowardly, etc. If we want to use these words as adverbs, we say in a friendly way/manner/fashion: Meg always greets me in a friendly way.

Other words ending in –ly can be adjectives or adverbs, e.g.: fatherly, motherly, monthly, yearly.

Adverb and Adjective Constructions

Most adverbs, as said before, are derived from adjectives by suffixation, so there are some constructions with adjectives that correspond to constructions containing adverbs. Consider these examples:

Adverb Examples:

He played carefully.
I sleep heavily.
Sincerely, the problem isn’t so difficult.
His friends came to see me frequently.

Adjective Examples:

He played in a careful way.
I’m a heavy sleeper.
To be sincere, the problem isn’t so difficult.
His friends came to see me on frequent occasions.

Gradable Adverbs and Comparison

Gradable adverbs admit three types of comparison:

To a Higher Degree: E.g. Can you run faster than me?
To the Same Degree: E.g. The problem was presented as clearly as possible.
To a Lower Degree: E.g. This story is written less interestingly.

Comparison to a higher degree may be expressed by means of an inflection (-er) or by means of (more…). E.g.: Can you run faster than me? Can you do this more carefully?

Adverb Placement in Sentences

General Placement Rules

Most adverbs follow the verb and the object if there is one. E.g.: She sings beautifully. She sang the song beautifully.
If we wish to emphasize how an action is performed, the adverb of manner, if it is only one word, is often placed between the subject and the verb. E.g.: He quickly shut the door when the teacher came in. She slowly spelled out her name to the shopkeeper.

Placement of Specific Adverbs

Adverbs such as still, just, already, yet, and frequency adverbs (such as always, often, rarely, usually, never, occasionally) are usually put before the verb. E.g.: I often go to the cinema. I have never been to the cinema.

Exception: They occur after the main verb “be”. E.g.: She is rarely tired.

Understanding “Still” and “Yet”

“Still” and “yet” mean “until now” and we often use them with the present perfect.

Still: We use still to emphasize continuity, mainly in affirmatives and sometimes in questions. E.g.: I’m still waiting for my new passport. Is Martha still in hospital? We can also use still in the negative for special emphasis. E.g.: John still hasn’t written to me. Still has the same position in a sentence as adverbs of frequency.
Yet: We use yet mainly in questions and negatives and often put it at the end of the sentence. E.g.: Has your new passport arrived yet? No, not yet. It hasn’t arrived yet.

Using “Already”

“Already” means “before now” or “so soon”. We use it in questions and affirmatives but not in negatives. We can put it in the middle of a sentence or at the end. E.g.: Have you already finished lunch? Have you finished lunch already? This machine is already out of date. It’s out of date already.

Common Adverbs of Time

Other common adverbs of time are: afterwards, just, lately, now, once, recently, soon, suddenly, then. We often use these adverbs in storytelling.

Order of Multiple Adverbs

If there are several adverbs in a sentence, the usual order in which they follow the verb is:

Manner (how?)
Place (where?)
Time (when?)

E.g.: They’ll dance enthusiastically outdoors tomorrow.

If there is a verb of movement, we often put the adverb of place straight after the verb in order to complete its sense. E.g.: We must move forward now.
Adverbs of time are often put at the beginning of the sentence, particularly if it is a long sentence with other adverbs or adverbials in it, or for the purpose of emphasis. E.g.: Yesterday, Peter’s family flew urgently abroad due to their aunt’s death.

Position of Adverbs of Frequency

In Affirmative Sentences and Questions

The most common are: always, almost always, generally, usually, normally, frequently, often, sometimes, hardly ever, seldom, ever, not… ever, never.

Adverbs of frequency have three basic positions in affirmative sentences:

After “be” when it is the only verb in a sentence: I am always late.
After the first auxiliary when there is more than one: I would always have been late.
Before the main verb when there is only one verb: You never tried hard enough.

In questions, the adverb of frequency comes after the subject: Are you always late?

In Negative Statements

These usually come after “not”: always, generally, normally, often, reguarly, usually. E.g.: Public transport isn’t always (etc.) very reliable.

Generally, normally, often, and usually can come after the subject for special emphasis: We normally don’t worry if the children are late.
We generally use sometimes and frequently before “not” or before isn’t, doesn’t, don’t, didn’t, etc.: Debbie is sometimes not responsible for what she does. He is frequently not at home. She sometimes isn’t reliable. He frequently doesn’t get home till 10.
We cannot use not to form negatives with hardly ever, etc.: He hardly ever writes.

Order of Same Type Adverbs

If there is more than one of the same type of adverb in a sentence then:

The most exact goes before the most general: She exercised only once yesterday.
The shortest manner adverb goes before the longest one: Play hard but carefully.

If the verb is in the passive voice, the manner adverbs are usually placed immediately before the participle: The patient was quickly taken to the hospital.