Free English study: Adverbs

adverbs adverbs are used to describe actions they may come before or after a verb but not between a verb and its object mrs jenner sang softly most common word order mrs jenner softly sang also possible mrs jenner softly sang a lullaby mrs jenner sang a lullaby softly adverbs may come between a main verb and its auxiliaries mrs jenner is softly singing a lullaby mrs jenner has been softly singing that lullaby for a long time some time and frequency adverbs are movable that is they can be placed at various points in a sentence yesterday i visited the dentist i visited the dentist yesterday jack prompt is here already jack prompt is already here caution even though some adverbs can be used in certain sentence positions others cannot adverbs such as quite very really extremely and absolutely are used to modify adjectives and other adverbs they come directly before the words they describe greg is quite happy with his new boss sue eats very slowly you're absolutely right many adverbs can be formed by adding l y to adjectives carl is a quick runner carl runs quickly some adverbs are identical to adjectives in form others are completely different carl is a fast runner adjective carl runs fast adverb jill is a good student adjective jill studies well adverb be careful with words like hardly and lately which have no relation to the adjectives and adverbs hard and late jacob kicked the ball hard he kicked the ball with tremendous force jacob hardly kicked the ball he barely touched the ball trudy came to class late she was tardy trudy hasn't come to class lately she hasn't been to class recently you