English2Easy

2. Adverbs and adverbial phrases

You can complete your sentence with one or more of the following adverbials:

1.  of time: yesterday, at 6 o'clock, in the morning.

2.  of place: in the garden, here, there, at home.

3.  of manner: [adjective + ly] quickly, slowly [irregular : well, hard, fast]

4.  of purpose : to lose weight, to get more money.

5.  of direction : to the house, from the library.

6.  of frequency : every morning, every Tuesday.

Order of adverbs

•  There are three positions of the place of adverb in the simple sentence :

1. Initial position.

2. Mid position.

3. Final position.

However, you cannot place all the adverbs in the three positions but there is a preferable position for each king of adverb.

1. Adverbs of place usually take the end position:

      Correct: Ali is sitting outside.

      Incorrect: Outside Ali is sitting.

Other common adverbs of place include: inside, here, there.

2. Adverbs of definite time usually take the beginning or end position.

     Correct: I went to my aerobics class yesterday.

     Incorrect: I yesterday went to my aerobics class.

     (Other common adverbs of definite time include: today, tomorrow, now)

3. Adverbs of indefinite time can take the initial, middle, or end position.

      Correct: Recently I've become interested in karate.

      Correct: I've recently become interested in karate.

      Correct: I've become interested in karate recently.

Other adverbs of indefinite time include lately.

4. Adverbs used to evaluate usually take the end position:

      Correct : Hesham did that cleaning job well.

      Incorrect : Hesham did well that cleaning job.

      (other common adverbs used to evaluate include badly, poorly)

5. Adverbs of manner usually take the middle or end position but can not take the initial position:

     Correct : Noha quietly opened the door to the baby's room.

     Correct : Noha opened the door to the baby quietly.

     Incorrect : Quietly, Noha opened the baby's room.

Other common adverbs of manner include quickly, carelessly, softly.

6. Adverbs of frequency follow very specific rules regarding their position in the sentence:

Common adverbs of frequency include always, frequently, occasionally, seldom, continually, hardly, ever, often, sometimes, ever, never, rarely, usually.

 a. With the verb to be – after the verb

       Correct: Sheriff is never at home when I call him.

       Correct : Ali is continually busy.

b. With the verb to be + not - after not

       Correct: James is not always nice to his little sister.

       Correct: It is not usually so hot here during the summer.

c. With other verbs – before the verb

        Correct: Jane always skates on the boardwalk.

        Correct: I never ride my bicycle to class

d. In a verb phrase – after the first auxiliary verb

      Correct: John can always hit the target.

      Correct: I have never seen a comet.

e. In a verb phrase with not –  after not

      Correct: She does not always type her paper.

      Correct: He does not usually have time to read the newspaper. 

3. Adjectives.

      The function of the adjective is to describe a noun and in English, it comes before the noun. Adjectives are of various kinds and you can use more than one before the noun.

      The adjective can describe the size, colour, shape, material or an opinion about noun:

big, small, large,  green, red, yellow, round, square, rectangular, wooden, metallic,  good, bad, wonderful