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How to Form Adverbs for English

Updated: Jan 10, 2022


The Explanation

Adverbs are the words that describe or modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb in a sentence. In simple words, Adverbs are used to express how something is done.

e.g.:

  • Laura is laughing- This sentence has the verb ‘laugh’ as the action

  • Laura is laughing loudly- In this sentence, the word ‘loudly’ is an adverb since it tells us more about the action (intensity in this case)

How to use the Adverbs

There are several ways the Adverbs can be used as discussed below-

  • Adverbs modifying a Verb

E.g.:

  • Jim is talking nicely

  • She can speak French fluently

  • She may come here


  • Adverbs modifying an adjective

E.g.:

  • The book is extremely funny

  • The parents are joyously happy


  • Adverb modifying another adverb

E.g.:

  • She drives her car very carelessly

  • Jim responded too quickly



Formation of Adverbs

The below are the main rules for the formation of the Adverbs

  1. In general, Adverbs are formed by adding-ly at the end of the adjectives


e.g.: quickly, loudly, beautifully, happily, joyously, interestingly, easily strangely, bravely; ably, cheerfully, modestly, selfishly; vigorously etc

  • Mina is a beautiful girl. (Adjective – beautiful)

  • Mina smiled beautifully. (Adverb – beautifully)


  • He is a strange fellow. (Adjective – strange)

  • He behaved strangely. (Adverb – strangely)

  • Silent e is dropped in true, due, whole e.g.: true → truly

  • y becomes I e.g.: happy → happily

  • le after a consonant is dropped e.g.: sensible → sensibly

2. Adverbs are formed by adding the suffixes wise, ways, ward and wards

e.g.:

  • The student glanced sideways at the teacher.


  1. Adverbs are formed with the words which are used as both adjectives and adverbs such as early, easy, daily, leisurely etc.

e.g.:

  • Joe is an early riser.

  • I got up early today.


4. There are some adverbs that exist without the use of –ly at the end of the adjectives

e.g.: very, too, pretty, right, low, far, hard, well, close, straight etc


Various types of Adverbs

An adverb can modify a verb, adjective or another adverb in various ways, basis which they can be classified as-

  • Adverb of Manner: e.g.: Sadly, Happily, Rudely, Angrily, Rapidly etc

  • Adverb of Time: e.g.: Then, Yesterday, Tomorrow, Now, Soon, Tonight, Again etc

  • Adverb of Pace: e.g.: Inside, Outside, Somewhere, Inside, High, Top etc

  • Adverb of Frequency: e.g.: Usually, Often, Seldom, Generally, Occasionally etc









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