How Many Types of Adverbs are There

Introduction

Adverbs can be classified into six different types on the basis of the kind of information they impart and what they describe. An adverb is a part of speech in English. Parts of speech form the integral parts of English grammar. These parts are divided into nine different parts among which Adverbs form one of these parts. Thus, below is a brief introduction to parts of speech, what are adverbs, their types, and examples.

What are the parts of Speech?

Parts of speech in English grammar, are the lexical terms that when arranged in a proper manner work to improve the structure of the sentence. If you start looking for the roots of the parts of speech of other languages you can find them in ancient India within the Sanskrit and Tamil grammar. The parts of speech were first defined in Sanskrit and Tamil Grammar and were categorised into different parts based on the functions they serve.

Here is the list of parts of speech in English Grammar:

• Noun

• Verb

• Adjective

• Adverb

• Pronoun

• Preposition

• Conjunction

• Article

• Interjection

What are Adverbs?

As the name suggests, Adverbs are words that describe Verbs. To have a better understanding of Adverbs one needs to have a clear picture of verbs. Verbs like Adverbs are also parts of speech.

Verbs can be defined as words that describe the action that a noun performs. The verb also describes the state or occurrence of a noun. Some Examples of verbs are- read, eat, play, walk, swim, become, exist, cook, bake, etc.

An adverb is a word that describes a verb. It is also added to a sentence to modify an adjective, verb, preposition, sentence, or clause. You can also add more information to a sentence by adding different types of Adverbs.

Types of adverbs are:

1. Adverb of Manner

2. Adverb of Time

3. Adverb of Frequency

4. Adverb of place

5. Adverb of degree

6. Conjunctive Adverbs

Adverbs in a sentence also act as a verb phrase which means it includes a verb and its dependents.

For example:

“ A Child is Sleeping.” The sentence gives you nothing except that the Child is sleeping but if you add an adverb to it the sentence becomes,

“The Child has been sleeping since 2:00 a.m.” The sentence now tells you how long the child is sleeping. This is the Adverb of time.

Examples of Adverbs used in a Sentence

1. The man is walking briskly. The sentence tells you that man is in a hurry due to some reason and is thus moving fast. Here ‘briskly’ is the Adverb.

2. The Student Cheated Smartly. The sentence tells you that the student was smart enough to cheat and not get caught. Here ‘Smartly’ is the Adverb.

3. She reached the office early. The sentence tells you that she reached the office earlier. Maybe she had some work or she is just punctual. Here ‘early’ is the adverb.

4. Ram laughed loudly. Here ‘loudly’ is the adverb. The sentence tells you that Ram laughed loudly as he found something way too funny.

Types of Adverbs and Their Examples

As listed above, there are 6 different kinds of Adverbs in English grammar. Each type of adverb provides different information about the sentence.

1. Adverb of Time: If you wish to add information about “when” to a verb in a sentence, then the adverb used is the adverb of time. It tells you the time or moment at which the action is being done.
   An Example of an Adverb of time includes: I will come on 10th December.
   So when someone asks you when will you come? You answer it by saying 10th December.

2. Adverb of place: When you add the information of “where” to a verb in a sentence then the adverb used is the adverb of place. It tells you where at which spot the action takes place.
   An example of an adverb of place includes: I will go to Nagaland on 10th December.
   So when someone asks where will you go on 10th December? You answer it by saying Nagaland.

3. Adverb of Frequency: When you add the information of “how often” to a verb in a sentence, then the adverb used is the adverb of frequency. It tells you at what frequency the task is done.
   An example of an adverb of frequency includes: I go to Gym daily.
   So when someone asks how often do you work out? You answer it by saying Daily.

4. Adverb of Manner: When you add the information of “how” to a verb in a sentence, then the adverb used is the adverb of manners. It tells you in what way the task is being done.
   An example of an adverb of manners includes: He dresses smartly.
   So when someone asks you, how does he dress? You answer it by saying Smartly.

5. Adverb of Degree: When you add the information of “to what extent” to a verb in a sentence, then the adverb being used is the adverb of degree. It tells you how much or to what extent the task is being done.
   An example of an adverb of the degree includes: It is extremely cold.
   So when someone asks you how cold it is? You answer it by saying extremely cold.

6. Conjunctive Adverb: As the name suggests, Conjunctive adverbs act as conjunctions and are used to join two or more sentences. They are also termed Relative Adverbs.
   An example of a Conjunctive Adverb includes: I was about to go to play when it started raining.
   The sentence above can be broken into two different sentences.
   1. I was about to go to play.
   2. It started raining.
   The two sentences are joined using “When”.
   There are only three relative adverbs in number. They are- when, why, and where.

Conclusion

We learned above that adverbs are a part of speech that is used to modify or give more information on verbs. In other words, if someone asks you a question about a verb your answer will be the adverb. We also learned about different types of adverbs, their uses, and their examples.