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What Is an Adverb?

An adverb gives more detail about how, when, where, to what extent, or how often something happens.

What Can an Adverb Modify?

Unlike adjectives, which only describe nouns and pronouns, adverbs can modify four different things.

Types of Adverbs

Adverbs are grouped by the kind of information they provide.

Flat Adverbs: When an Adverb Looks Like an Adjective

Some adverbs keep the exact same form as their adjective counterpart instead of adding -ly. These are called flat adverbs: fast, hard, straight, slow, early, late, well.

A few flat adverbs have an alternate -ly form that's equally correct: slow/slowly, bright/brightly, safe/safely. "Drive safe" and "drive safely" are both acceptable.

Adverbs vs. Adjectives

This is the single most common mix-up involving adverbs, and it almost always happens with linking verbs. Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. The confusion sets in with verbs like feel, look, smell, and sound, which can act as either a linking verb or an action verb.

Degrees of Comparison

Like adjectives, many adverbs show comparison across three degrees.

• Absolute: the base form ("He smiled warmly.").
• Comparative: compares two things, usually formed with more ("He smiled more warmly than the others.").
• Superlative: compares three or more, usually formed with most ("He smiled most warmly of them all.").

Flat adverbs follow the same comparative and superlative pattern as their matching adjective, using -er and -est instead of more/most: "The cheetah runs fastest."

Where Does an Adverb Go?

Placement changes meaning more with adverbs than with almost any other part of speech.

• Modifying a verb: usually goes right before or after it ("He quickly ran" or "He ran quickly").
• Modifying an adjective or adverb: goes directly before the word it modifies ("She is extremely smart").
• With a transitive verb: place the adverb after the object, never between the verb and its object ("They decorated the hall elaborately" — NOT: "decorated elaborately the hall").

The "only" trap: only is one of the most frequently misplaced words in English, and moving it changes the meaning entirely.

• "Phillip only fed the cat." (all he did was feed it)
• "Phillip fed only the cat." (he fed the cat and nothing else)

A misplaced adverb can also create a squinting modifier, where it's unclear which word it's modifying: "Singing quickly improved his stammer" leaves it ambiguous whether quickly refers to singing or improved.

The Hyphen Rule for Adverbs Before Adjectives

Most -ly adverbs never take a hyphen when modifying an adjective, since there's no risk of confusion: "a happily married couple."

A small number of adverbs that look identical to adjectives, like well and fast, do take a hyphen before the adjective to prevent misreading:

• "A well-known author." (famous, not necessarily in good health)
• "A fast-growing company." (growing quickly)

How to Identify an Adverb?

If you're unsure whether a word is an adverb, check these signals:

• Does it answer how, when, where, why, or to what extent? These are the core adverb questions.
• Can you remove it without breaking the sentence? Most adverbs are optional extra detail, unlike verbs and nouns.
• Does it modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb rather than a noun? If it describes a noun instead, it's an adjective.
• Does it end in -ly? A strong hint, but not proof. Words like friendly and lovely end in -ly and are still adjectives.

Is ___ an Adverb? Quick Answers

Some of the most common words in English shift categories or carry a meaning that isn't obvious from their form.