Placement Options For Adverbs: Patiently Patiently Patiently
Placement Options For Adverbs: Patiently Patiently Patiently
Placement Options For Adverbs: Patiently Patiently Patiently
ADVERB TYPE BEFORE THE VERB MID –POSITION AFTER THE VERB
Adverbs that tell us how an activity is done can Adverbs that tell us how or how often can be Most adverbs are positioned after the verb. (If the adver
be positioned before the verb for emphasis. placedbetween the auxiliary and main verb. "split" another adverb or adjective, it is placed before it.)
FOCUS He even will work on weekend nights. He will even work on weekend nights. He will work on weekend nights even.
Adverbs that draw attention to He also has been working overtime. He has also been working overtime. He has been doing also overtime work.
information He has been also working overtime. He has been working overtime too / as well.
Adverb of Manner
(e.g.: slowly, carefully, awfully)
These adverbs are put behind the direct object (or behind the verb if there's no direct object).
subject verb(s) direct object adverb
He drove carefully.
Adverbs of Place
(e.g.: here, there, behind, above)
Like adverbs of manner, these adverbs are put behind the direct object or the verb.
He stayed behind.
Adverbs of Time
(e.g.: recently, now, then, yesterday)
If you don't want to put emphasis on the time, you can also put the adverb of time at the beginning of the sentence.
time subject verb(s) indirect object direct object
Adverbs of Frequency
(e.g.: always, never, seldom, usually)
Adverbs of frequency are put directly before the main verb. If 'be' is the main verb and there is no auxiliary verb, adverbs of frequency are put behind 'be'. Is there an auxiliary
verb, however, adverbs of frequency are put before 'be'.
Definition
As we will see, adverbs often tell when, where, why, or under what conditions something happens or happened. Adverbs frequently end in -ly; however,
many words and phrases not ending in -ly serve an adverbial function and an -ly ending is not a guarantee that a word is an adverb. The words lovely, lonely,
motherly, friendly, neighborly, for instance, are adjectives:
If a group of words containing a subject and verb acts as an adverb (modifying the verb of a sentence), it is called an Adverb Clause:
When a group of words not containing a subject and verb acts as an adverb, it is called an adverbial phrase. Prepositional phrases frequently have
adverbial functions (telling place and time, modifying the verb):
The as — as construction can be used to create adverbs that express sameness or equality: "He can't run as fast as his sister."
A handful of adverbs have two forms, one that ends in -ly and one that doesn't. In certain cases, the two forms have different meanings:
He arrived late.
Lately, he couldn't seem to be on time for anything.
In most cases, however, the form without the -ly ending should be reserved for casual situations:
Emphasizers:
o I really don't believe him.
o He literally wrecked his mother's car.
o She simply ignored me.
o They're going to be late, for sure.
Amplifiers:
o The teacher completely rejected her proposal.
o I absolutely refuse to attend any more faculty meetings.
o They heartily endorsed the new restaurant.
o I so wanted to go with them.
o We know this city well.
Downtoners:
o I kind of like this college.
o Joe sort of felt betrayed by his sister.
o His mother mildly disapproved his actions.
o We can improve on this to some extent.
o The boss almost quit after that.
o The school was all but ruined by the storm.
Adverbs (as well as adjectives) in their various degrees can be accompanied by premodifiers:
She runs very fast.
We're going to run out of material all the faster
For this section on intensifiers, we are indebted to A Grammar of Contemporary English by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. Longman Group: London.
1978. pages 438 to 457. Examples our own.
Within the normal flow of text, it's nearly always a bad idea to number items beyond three or four, at the most. Anything beyond that, you're better off
with a vertical list that uses numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.). Also, in such a list, don't use adverbs (with an -ly ending); use instead the uninflected ordinal number (first,
second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.). First (not firstly), it's unclear what the adverb is modifying. Second (not secondly), it's unnecessary. Third (not thirdly), after
you get beyond "secondly," it starts to sound silly. Adverbs that number in this manner are treated asdisjuncts (see below.)
Review the section on Being Concise for some advice on adverbs that we can eliminate to the benefit of our prose: intensifiers such as very, extremely,
and really that don't intensify anything and expletive constructions ("There are several books that address this issue.")
Kinds of Adverbs
Adverbs of Manner
She moved slowly and spoke quietly.
Adverbs of Place
She has lived on the island all her life.
She still lives there now.
Adverbs of Frequency
She takes the boat to the mainland every day.
She often goes by herself.
Adverbs of Time
She tries to get back before dark.
It's starting to get dark now.
She finished her tea first.
She left early.
Adverbs of Purpose
She drives her boat slowly to avoid hitting the rocks.
She shops in several stores to get the best buys.
Positions of Adverbs
One of the hallmarks of adverbs is their ability to move around in a sentence. Adverbs of manner are particularly flexible in this regard.
Indefinite adverbs of time can appear either before the verb or between the auxiliary and the main verb:
Order of Adverbs
There is a basic order in which adverbs will appear when there is more than one. It is similar to The Royal Order of Adjectives, but it is even more
flexible.
As a general principle, shorter adverbial phrases precede longer adverbial phrases, regardless of content. In the following sentence, an adverb of time
precedes an adverb of frequency because it is shorter (and simpler):
A second principle: among similar adverbial phrases of kind (manner, place, frequency, etc.), the more specific adverbial phrase comes first:
Bringing an adverbial modifier to the beginning of the sentence can place special emphasis on that modifier. This is particularly useful with adverbs of manner:
Slowly, ever so carefully, Jesse filled the coffee cup up to the brim, even above the brim.
Occasionally, but only occasionally, one of these lemons will get by the inspectors.
Review the section on Misplaced Modifiers for some additional ideas on placement. Modifiers can sometimes attach themselves to and thus modify
words that they ought not to modify.
They reported that Giuseppe Balle, a European rock star, had died on the six o'clock news.
Clearly, it would be better to move the underlined modifier to a position immediately after "they reported" or even to the beginning of the sentence — so the
poor man doesn't die on television.
Misplacement can also occur with very simple modifiers, such as only and barely:
Regardless of its position, an adverb is often neatly integrated into the flow of a sentence. When this is true, as it almost always is, the adverb is called an
adjunct. (Notice the underlined adjuncts or adjunctive adverbs in the first two sentences of this paragraph.) When the adverb does not fit into the flow of the
clause, it is called a disjunct or a conjunct and is often set off by a comma or set of commas. A disjunct frequently acts as a kind of evaluation of the rest of the
sentence. Although it usually modifies the verb, we could say that it modifies the entire clause, too. Notice how "too" is a disjunct in the sentence immediately
before this one; that same word can also serve as an adjunct adverbial modifier: It's too hot to play outside. Here are two more disjunctive adverbs:
Conjuncts, on the other hand, serve a connector function within the flow of the text, signaling a transition between ideas.
At the extreme edge of this category, we have the purely conjunctive device known as the conjunctive adverb (often called the adverbial conjunction):
Jose has spent years preparing for this event; nevertheless, he's the most nervous person here.
I love this school; however, I don't think I can afford the tuition.
Authority for this section: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. 126. Used with permission. Examples our own.
(Notice, though, that when enough functions as an adjective, it can come before the noun:
If too comes after the adverb it is probably a disjunct (meaning also) and is usually set off with a comma:
Another common construction with the adverb too is too followed by a prepositional phrase — for + the object of the preposition — followed by an infinitive:
Relative Adverbs
Adjectival clauses are sometimes introduced by what are called the relative adverbs: where, when, and why. Although the entire clause is adjectival and
will modify a noun, the relative word itself fulfills an adverbial function (modifying a verb within its own clause).
The relative pronoun "where" modifies the verb "used to be" (which makes it adverbial), but the entire clause ("where my great grandfather used to be
minister") modifies the word "church."
My favorite month is always February, when we celebrate Valentine's Day and Presidents' Day.
And a why clause will modify the noun reason:
We sometimes leave out the relative adverb in such clauses, and many writers prefer "that" to "why" in a clause referring to "reason":
Authority for this section: Understanding English Grammar by Martha Kolln. 4rth Edition. MacMillan Publishing Company: New York. 1994.
A viewpoint adverb generally comes after a noun and is related to an adjective that precedes that noun:
You will sometimes hear a phrase like "scholastically speaking" or "financially speaking" in these circumstances, but the word "speaking" is seldom necessary.
A focus adverb indicates that what is being communicated is limited to the part that is focused; a focus adverb will tend either to limit the sense of the
sentence ("He got an A just for attending the class.") or to act as an additive ("He got an A in addition to being published."
Although negative constructions like the words "not" and "never" are usually found embedded within a verb string — "He has never been much help to his
mother." — they are technically not part of the verb; they are, indeed, adverbs. However, a so-called negative adverb creates a negative meaning in a
sentence without the use of the usual no/not/neither/nor/never constructions:
He seldom visits.
She hardly eats anything since the accident.
After her long and tedious lectures, rarely was anyone awake.
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