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The Tongue Untied

A Guide to Grammar, Punctuation and Style

  • Parts of Speech
    • Adjectives
      • Descriptive
      • Limiting
      • Predicate Adjective
      • Participles
    • Adverbs
    • Conjunctions
      • Coordinating Conjunctions
      • Subordinating Conjunctions
      • Correlative Conjunctions
      • Conjunctive Adverbs
      • Conjunctions vs Prepositions
    • Nouns
      • Subjects
      • Objects
        • Direct Object
        • Indirect Object
        • Obj. of the Preposition
        • Obj. of the Verbal
      • Predicate Nominative
      • Gerunds
    • Prepositions
    • Pronouns
      • Personal
      • Relative
      • Indefinite
      • Demonstrative
      • Interrogative
      • Reflexive
    • Verbs
      • Verb Parts
        • Lexical
        • Auxilliary
      • Verb Types
        • Transitive
        • Intransitive
        • Linking
    • Verbals
      • Gerunds
      • Participles
      • Infinitives
  • The Sentence
    • Clauses
      • Clauses, Independent
      • Clauses, Dependent
    • Phrases
      • Prepositional
      • Participial
      • Gerund Phrase
      • Appositives
  • Case
    • Nominative-Subjective
    • Objective
    • Possessive
    • Possessive Nouns
  • Agreement
    • Always Plural
    • Always Singular
    • Singular or Plural — It Depends
    • Antecedents
  • Punctuation
    • Apostrophe
    • Commas
    • Colon
    • Dash
    • Hyphens
    • semicolon
    • Quotation Mark
  • Writing/Editing
    • Accuracy
    • Clarity
    • Conciseness
    • Misplaced Modifiers
    • Small Things That Matter
    • Spelling/Word Choice
  • Practice

Parts of Speech: Adverbs

June 2, 2009 by TheTongueUntied Leave a Comment

An adverb modifies–changes, enhances, limits, describes, intensifies, muffles — a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

AN ADVERB ANSWERS THE QUESTION HOW?
[In the following examples, the adverb is bold and the word it modifies is underlined.]

It isn’t just the practice, studying, running, bad days, great days and traveling that experienced players handlewell.

  • WELL tells us how the players HANDLE things.

They have quickly figured out how to deal with their boss.

  • QUICKLY tells us how they HAVE FIGURED OUT.

It’s nice to have a group that handles the situations better than others have.

  • BETTER describes how the group HANDLES the direct objects SITUATIONS.

Either they sitquietly and watch, not taking a side, or find themselves actually rooting for one of these two.

  • QUIETLY describes how they SIT.

 

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AN ADVERB INDICATES TO WHAT DEGREE?

This has been a really nice group to work with,” Penn State coach Rene Portland said of her team.

  • To what degree is the group nice? REALLY.
  • NOTE: NICE is an adjective. This is an example of an adverb modifying an adjective.

How do so-called neutral fans react to this game between two programs they certainly respect but probably can’t stand?

  • What kind of neutral are the fans? SO-CALLED.
  • NOTE: NEUTRAL is an adjective.

The coach did not sound overly concerned about it.

  • What is the degree of concern not expressed? OVERLY
  • NOTE: CONCERNED is a PREDICATE adjective.

She is not sure our crowd will bother them that much.

  • To what degree will the crowd bother them? MUCH.

AN ADVERB ANSWERS THE QUESTION WHEN?

We are in a busy time now,” the mayor said.

  • When is the busy time? NOW
  • NOTE: ARE is not a linking verb here. It is in transitive.

“Confident” would not have described the student yesterday.

  • When was the STUDENT not CONFIDENT? YESTERDAY

Recently, we’ve allowed her to sneak outside and play the wing.

  • WHEN has she been allowed? RECENTLY.

AN ADVERB ANSWERS THE QUESTION WHERE?

The little girl plays inside quietly.

  • Where does she play well? INSIDE.
  • NOTE: QUIETLY is also an adverb telling us how she plays.

Recently, we’ve allowed her to sneak outside and play.

  • OUTSIDE tells us where she has been allowed to sneak.
  • NOTE: RECENTLY is also an adverb telling us when we allowed it.

The goat has climbed out.

  • OUT indicates where the goat HAS CLIMBED.

An adverb can also introduce sentences or modify entire phrases or sentences.

Thursday, NBC will show the premieres of its best shows.

  • THURSDAY tells the reader when about the whole sentence.

Adverbs may refer to:

  • TIME        (He arrived promptly.)
  • MANNER   (Cougars walk silently.)
  • DEGREE    (She was quite miserable.)
  • PLACE      (The book belongs there.)

Related posts:

Conjunctive Adverbs
Small Things that Matter #3: Infinitives
Pronouns: Demonstrative

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Filed Under: Adverbs, Parts of Speech Tagged With: Adverbs, Parts of Speech, Schoolhouse Rock

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