Here’s a long and detailed description of **adverbs** — what they are, how they work, their types, their usage, their forms, issues/confusions, etc. You can use this for a paper, or as rich material for a presentation. If you want, I can also polish it or make a version in simpler / shorter language. --- ## Adverbs: A Detailed Description ### 1. What is an Adverb? An **adverb** is a part of speech — a class of words — whose primary job is to modify or give more information about verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and sometimes entire clauses or sentences. Adverbs help answer questions such as: * *How?* (manner) * *When?* (time) * *Where?* (place) * *How often?* (frequency) * *To what degree / extent?* (degree) * *Why?* (purpose / reason) * *Under what conditions?* etc. So, compared to verbs, adjectives, and nouns, which denote actions, states, qualities, or entities, adverbs are modifiers — they refine, qualify, or limit meaning. ([Wikipedia][1]) For example: * *She runs **quickly*** — “quickly” modifies the verb “runs,” telling **how** she runs. * *It was **very** cold* — “very” modifies the adjective “cold,” telling **to what degree**. * *They almost always arrive early* — “almost” modifies “always” (another adverb), giving its degree. * *Unfortunately, I missed the bus* — “unfortunately” modifies or comments on the whole sentence (a sentential adverb). Adverbs are sometimes formed by adding **-ly** to adjectives (quick → quickly; careful → carefully), but **not all adverbs** end in *-ly*, and not all *-ly* words are adverbs. For example *friendly* is an adjective, not an adverb. Also adverbs like *soon, always, here, there, very, almost, never* don’t follow the *-ly* pattern. ([Scribbr][2]) --- ### 2. Functions / Roles of Adverbs Adverbs serve different roles depending on what they modify. Here are the main possibilities: 1. **Modifying Verbs** — giving extra detail about how, when, where, how often, etc. an action happens. *E.g.* “He spoke softly,” “She arrived late.” 2. **Modifying Adjectives** — changing or intensifying the quality denoted by an adjective. *E.g.* “very tall,” “incredibly easy.” 3. **Modifying Other Adverbs** — refining or limiting another adverb. *E.g.* “almost always,” “very quickly.” 4. **Modifying Whole Sentences or Clauses** — also called **sentence adverbs**. These express the speaker’s attitude or comment on what is being said. *E.g.* “Frankly, I disagree,” “Unfortunately, we lost.” 5. **Connecting Clauses or Thoughts** — these are **conjunctive adverbs / linking adverbs**, which help show relationships like cause-effect, contrast, sequence, etc. *E.g.* “Therefore, we decided to leave,” “However, she changed her mind.” ([Wikipedia][3]) 6. **Phrasal / Clause Adverbials** — sometimes more than one word (or even a full clause) acts like an adverb to modify something. These are called **adverbial phrases** or **adverbial clauses**. *E.g.* “He left after the meeting ended”adverbial clause

1. Adverb
Prepared by Shoaib Mirza

2. Adverb
An adverb is a word that modifies
1. A verb
2. An adjective
3. Another adverb
4. An entire sentence
It tells us how, when, where, or how often , or to what
extent something happens.

3. Examples-
1. She sings beautifully.
2. He arrived late.
3. The movie was very interesting.
4. He runs quite fast.
5. Fortunately, we reached on time.

4. Formation: Adjective +ly = adverb
Error Analysis: General + ly = generally
After action verbs: write neatly
Before a participle adjective: nicely written
After an adverb ‘very’ : written very nicely

5. Adverbs without an –ly
Manner Fast hard
Place here there
Time yesterday now
Frequency always seldom
Degree Enough too
Reason however hence
Negation not

6. After linking verbs: Today he seems sad/ sadly.
Seem, appear, look, grow, turn, sound etc.
Exception:
Ly
Adj + ly Noun+ ly
Adverb Adjective
Quickly Miserly

7. Test yourself
He treated me fatherly/ in a fatherly manner.

8. Order of Adverbs
J-V MPT DFT PFT WPC MPFTP Asc.
Asc.(Ascending)

9. Adverb of frequency
S + always +M.V S+H.V. Always+M.V
She usually goes for jogging in the evening.

10. J.V: Tea was enough hot.
Tea was hot enough.

11. MPT He was welcomed
How Where When
warmly at the entrance yesterday.
MPT

12. DFT I stayed in Muree
Howlong How often When
for two days twice in january.
DFT

13. PFT She goes to office weekly in the morning.
where how often when
p f t

14. WPC
He entered secretly through the window when I was
a sleep.
W P C

15. MPFTP
She sings beautifully at school daily in the morning
M P F T
for fun.
p

16. Ascending order
They visited us at 7 am on Monday in June.

17. 1. She is too wise.
2. You are too good.
3. This team is too weak.
4. This passage is too narrow to pass.
5. She is much more intelligent than I .
6. She is much the most intelligent girl in the class.

18. Too/Very

19. Too- more than required
Good Quality Bad Quality
Too happy
Too healthy
too glad
too strong
Too dull
too difficult
too careless
too weak

20. Note- too……..to + v1
too……..to+be+v3
In this structure we can use both “good” and
“bad” qualities with “too”.
1. The old man is too weak to walk.
2. She is too short to reach the shelf.
3. The news is too good to be true.

21. Note: Too before adjectives and adverbs
We use too immediately before adjectives and
adverbs:
This coffee is too sweet.
Not: This coffee is too much sweet.
It happened too quickly, so I just did not see it.
Not: It happened too much quickly.

22. Very- ( in a great degree)
Good quality Bad quality
Very good Very bad
Very active Very dull
Very easy Very difficult

23. Very/Much
Both are same in meaning
Very Much
( positive degree adj) (comparative degree adj)
Very good much better
Very beautiful much more beautiful

24. GRAMMAR
Very much
You use very much with the comparative form of
adjectives:
She is very much happier now.
I feel very much better.
You use very much with verbs:
He very much regrets what happened.
Thank you very much.
You use very much with prepositional phrases:
The company’s future is very much in doubt.
She was very much in demand as a speaker.

25. TOO MUCH
Rule: The adverb ‘too much’ is used
with nouns and adverb
‘much too’ is used with
adjective.

26. Fairly & Rather
Rule: Generally, fairly is used with
positive sense and rather is used
with negative or unfavourable
sense.

27. Example:
His elbow injury gives him too
much pain. ( Here pain is a noun )
He is much too careless. ( Here careless
is adjective ).

28. Use of Fairly-
Fairly is used in a moderate sense before the
adjectives used in good sense.
e.g. He is fairly well.
The weather is fairly fine.
Your story is fairly interesting.

29. Use of Rather-
Rather is also used in the moderate sense
before the adjectives used in bad sense.
e.g. Ali is rather hopeless.
The weather is rather bad.
The description of the incident is rather
boring.

30. Fairly is never preceded by too wherever we use
rather before the adverb too.
John is rather too wise.
Fairly doesn’t take the article a immediately
after it, but this is not the case with rather.
Abraham is rather a stupid boy.

31. Much or very with past participle
When a past participle is part of a passive verb,
we can put much or very much before it, but not
very.
He is much admired by his students.
Pakistan trade position has been much
weakened by inflation.

32. When a past participle is used as an adjective
, we usually prefer very .This common with
words referring to mental states , feelings, and
reactions.
A very frightened animal. ( compound Adj.)
A very shocked expression
The children were very bored.
She looked very surprised.