An adverb is a word used to modify a verb, an adjective, a participle, or another adverb.
Adverbs answer the questions
how? when? where? why? to what extent?
Adverbs add more information
From A New English Grammar for Schools, by Thomas Harvey:
1. Adverbs can modify verbs.
The dog barked ferociously.
In this sentence the word “ferociously” denotes not what the dog barked, but how it barked. It does not complete the meaning of the verb “bark” like an objective element, but modifies the verb in another way.
They partake both of the properties of the verb and the adjective; i.e. they express action, and they modify nouns.
2. Adverbs can modify adjectives.
You are very kind.
What word is modified by “very”?
What part of speech is “kind”?
In this sentence “very” tell to what extent you are kind. “Very” adds more information to the adjective “kind”.
3. Adverbs can modify participles.
A letter hastily written was sent to her.
“Written” is a participle, used as an adjective. “Hastily” tells how the letter was written, adding more information to a participle working as an adjective.
4. Adverbs can modify other adverbs.
He writes too carelessly.
In this sentence “carelessly” is an adverb modifying “writes”. “Too” tells how carelessly the letter was written, adding more information to the adverb.
5. When diagramming, an adverb is placed below the term which it modifies,
and in the angle formed by a vertical and a horizontal line. Several elements of the same kind may sometimes be placed in the same angle.
Note: Negatives are always adverbs
Exercise:
Point out the adverbs, verbs, and adjectives in the following sentences. Then diagram the sentences:
- He who gives cheerfully gives twice.
- His affairs were managed imprudently.
- Proceed slowly and cautiously.
- We shall never see his like again.
- You have not acted wisely.
- We must study diligently.
- Our dinner, cooked hastily, was eaten greedily.
