Adverb

Adverbs form a large and varied Word Class (Part of Speech). There're two main functions of adverbs:

1. Adverbs add information to a clause (e.g. about the time or place of an action). In this case they're called an "Adverbial".
2. Adverbs add information to another word, such as an adjective or another adverb. In this case they're called a "Modifier". 

1. Meaning

Adverbs have many different kinds of meaning. Let's see the most common in the table below.

Manner	well, how, quickly, slowly, hard, fast
Place	above, here, there, up, upstairs
Time	afterwards, now, recently, soon, then
Degree	much, quite, really, so, too, very
Frequency	always, generally, never, often, sometimes

Let's see other kinds of adverb:

Adding and limiting	also, either, else, neither, only, too
Length of Time	always, never, just, long
Linking	firstly, however, nevertheless, therefore
Stance	actually, oddly, perhaps, surely, wisely, strangely
Viewpoint	officially, mentally, morally, personally, strictly

Let's see some examples of these adverbs in the table below:

Adding and limiting	He only talked about Physics and Science.
Degree	The professor hopes his students will be really happy with their exam.
Frequency	She meets her boss quite frequently.
Length of Time	Have you ever been to Australia?
Linking	However, we arrived safely.
Manner	The class greeted a new member politely.
Place	I've lived here since 2015.
Stance	Strangely, the teacher never talked about himself.
Time	There's some bad news about flood recently.
Viewpoint	Personally, I found it interesting.

2. Wh- adverbs belong to some of the types listed above

Degree	Manner	Place	Reason and Cause	Time
how	how	where	why	when
however	however	wherever	-	whenever

3.Positions of adverbs

3.1. Three main positions of adverbs

A. Front position - before the subject

Adverb	Subject	Verb phrase	...
Occassionally	Sam	missed	Physics lesson

B. Middle position

In the middle position, adverb can either stand (a) after the first auxiliary or (b) after BE as a finite verb or (c) if there's no auxiliary, before the finite verb (other than BE).

(a) after the first auxiliary

Subject	First Auxiliary	Adverb	Verb phrase	...
Sam	has	Occassionally	missed	Physics lessons

(b) after BE as a finite verb

Subject	BE	Adverb	...
Sam	was	Occassionally	absent from Physics lessons

(c) if there's no auxiliary, before the finite verb (other than BE)

Subject	Adverb	Finite verb	...
Sam	Occassionally	missed	Physics lessons

C. End position - at the end of the clause

Subject	Verb	...	Adverb
Sam	missed	Physics lessons	Occassionally

3.2. The most common positions of adverbs

Type of adverb	Typical position	Example
linking	front	The teacher finished the lesson so we left.
stance	front	Unfortunately no one passed the exam.
viewpoint	front	Officially, my father is an owner of that car.
adding or limiting	middle	My best friend can also speak Chinese.
degree	middle	The students are really happy with their exam.
frequency	middle	My friend and I are always absent from Physics lessons.
length of time	middle	She has never been to Japan.
manner	end	In this city people must drive carefully.
place	end	He drove his girlfriend home.
time	end	We met Jack at the park yesterday.

Note: There're positions where adverbs rarely occur in English especially (a) before the Auxiliary Verb and (b) between the Main Verb and the following Object or Complement.

Right	Wrong
I will never forget you.	I never will forget you.
She can write Chinese better.	She can write better Chinese.

As modifiers, adverbs almost always come before the word they modify (an exception is Enough). Those adverbs are generally adverbs of degree.

adverb + adjective
very dangerous

adverb + adverb
too soon

adverb + conjunction
right until

adverb + determiner
too much

adverb + preposition
just before

adverb + pronoun
so few

4. Forms of adverbs

There're three main forms of adverbs:

(a) by adding -ly to an adjective. Example: slow => slowly / frequent => frequently / strange => strangely

(b) some of adverbs have the same form as adjectives. The most important are: early, far, fast, hard, near, straight, late, well, etc.

Let's see the comparison table below:

Adjective	Example	Adverb	Example
backward	backward journey	backward	move backward
direct	direct current	direct	fly direct [=straight, nonstop]
early	early morning	early	arrive early
far	far horizon	far	go far
fast	fast speed	fast	move fast
forward	forward development	forward	move forward
just	just punishment	just	just return
hard	hard drive	hard	work hard
late	late train	late	come late
left	left hand	left	turn left
little	little boy	little	work very little
near	the near future	near	come near
opposite	opposite side	opposite	sit opposite
pretty	pretty girl	pretty	pretty good
right	right hand	right	turn right
straight	straight line	straight	go straight
well*	He looks well (healthy)	well	work well
east	east wind	east	Our ship is sailing east.
north	north pole	north	turn north
south	south pole	south	turn south
west	west wind	west	drive west

(c) Many of the most common adverbs are not related to adjectives at all including "Prepositional Adverbs" such as in and out, and also such important words as: as, here, now, quite, so, there, too, very.

Note: Some adverbs have Comparative and Superlative forms.

Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
early	earlier	earliest
well	better	best
dangerously	more dangerously	most dangerously
quickly	more quickly	most quickly

You can find out more details about More / (The) Most and -ER / -EST in this blog.

Now it comes to the end of the lesson. I hope you undertand about adverbs clearly. Furthermore, if you have any question, just leave a comment in the comment section below.