2020-01-04 - Parts of Speech: Adverbs

Parts of Speech

• Part 1 - Introduction
• Part 2 - Nouns
• Part 3 - Verbs
• Part 4 - Pronouns
• Part 5 - Articles
• Part 6 - Adjectives
• Part 7 - Determiner
• Part 8 - Adverbs

Adverb is a catch all term for words that modify things that aren't nouns. They can be applied to verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, clauses and sentences. Like adjectives they serve to provide more specific context and more detail. Instead of saying "He walked away" you could say "He quickly walked away" or "She slowly walked away". Most but not all adverbs end in -ly. Some adverbs have a long form with -ly and a short for without it.

Adverbs have several classifications. Relative adverbs are used to combine parts of sentences to provide clarification. Interrogative adverbs are used in questions. Conjunctive adverbs serve to connect sentences.

Like adjectives, adverbs can also be used for comparisons. For short adverbs not ending in -ly the comparative form is created by adding -er and the superlative form is created by adding -ed. The comparative can also be created by adding more/less and the superlative can also be created by adding most/least.

Next time we will look at verbals which are words derived from verbs but used for other purposes.