You can click on the underlined words in green to see the meaning in Arabic.

Adverbs

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. An adverb "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb. Adverbs can tell you where, when, how, why and to what extent something happens. (Ahmad eats quickly). But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Nabeel is very smart), or even other adverbs (He reads very quickly).

1. What does an adverb do?
         As we mentioned earlier, the main function of an adverb is to modify a verb, an adjective, and other adverbs.
    Here are examples of how an adverb modifies a verb:
  • - Ahmad eats quickly. (How does Ahmad eat?)
  • - Sameer runs fast.(How does Sameer run?)
  • - He always skips class. (What does he do?)
    Here are examples of how an adverb modifies an adjective:
  • He is very smart.
  • He is really nice.
    Here are examples of how an adverb modifies another adverb:
  • - Ahmad eats very
  • quickly.
  • - He did his work very well.

          Adverbs can modify noun phrases:
          Some adverbs of degree such as quite, rather, so, such ... can modify noun phrases. For example:-
          - They had quite a great time.
          - Ahmad and Nabeel are such good friends.

2. How do we form an adverb?
  • Many adverbs end in -ly. We form such adverbs by adding -ly to the adjective.

  • For example:
    Quick becomes quickly , sudden becomes suddenly, intelligent becomes intelligently.

    But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. "Friendly",
    For example, is an adjective.

  • To form an adverb from adjectives ending in -y change the y to i before adding the -ly.

  • For example:
    angry becomes angrily , busy becomes busily

  • To form an adverb from adjectives that end in -e drop the -e before adding the -ly.

  • For example:
    true becomes truly .

  • Some adjectives that end in -ly need no changes.

  • For example:
    heavenly

    However, there are exceptions.
    For example:
    shy becomes shyly.

    Some adverbs have no particular form,
    For example:

    well, fast, very, never, always, often, hard, straight still.

3. Where do we place an adverb?

There are three main positions in a sentence for an adverb:

  • Before the subject:
    - Luckily we got there in time .
    - Now we leave work.
  • Between the subject and the main verb:
    - We always study English.
  • At the end of the sentence:
    - We study adverbs carefully.
  • After the verb "be":
    - He is always ready to do his work.

Adverbs and adjectives that have the same form.
adjective adverb
daily daily
close close
far far
early early
fair fair
fast fast
late late
free free
hard hard
high high
wrong wrong
long long
low low
Adverbs, where the basis is not an adjective.
adverb remarks
here place
there
today time
now
then
soon
still
yet
often frequency
sometimes
never
hard  
hardly

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