Writing Pro: Adverb Lesson 1

Adverb accounts for words that are, by nature, modifiers of verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. A lot of people think only about modifier of a verb when they hear the word adverb but you must end the streamlining. Now, adverb can simply be defined as words that modifies verbs, adjectives or other adverbs in sentences. Some examples of adverbs behaving in these manner are presented below:

1. He walks briskly.
2. He walks very briskly.
3. She is so fat...

In the examples cited above, you'll see that while briskly tells you about how he walks, very, in the second sentence tells how much briskly he walks and so in the last sentence tells you how much fat she is. These emboldened adverbs modify the verb, walk, the adverb, briskly and the adjective, fat respectively. Can you now see that adverbs may  modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs?

                 The Structure of Adverb
Understanding the structure of adverb, what it looks like and consequently, understanding its identification, I'd like to first of all proof to you that some adverbs originated from adjectives by adding affix -ly to the adjectives. Examples:

• Beautiful (adjective) + ly = beautifully (adverb). She danced beautifully.
• Strong + ly = strongly.
• Bad + ly = badly.

But not all words that end in ly qualify for adverbs, in fact, some adjectives also end in -ly. Ex.: rascally, motherly, brotherly, etc. Some adverbs are free morphemes. They are main words on their own. Ex.: too, home, so, very, seldom, quite, etc., etc.

You must know that those examples are simply representative and not exhaustive. You may proceed to our second lesson on adverbs to learn more about it. It's done that way for good simplification. Lingual command is a very reliable literary-dedicated website for all kinds of research on language and literature. Exclusively designed for English language users or students of English, esp., L² learners of English. To proceed to an advance lesson on adverb, click here.