What is an Adverb?

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies"

a verb (The man ran quickly). In the following examples, the adverb is
in bold and the verb that it modifies is in italics.

John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)

Afterwards she smoked a cigarette. (When did she smoke?)

Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)

But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even
other adverbs (It works verywell). Look at these examples:

Modify an adjective:
- He is really handsome. (How handsome is he?)
- That was extremely kind of you.

Modify another adverb:

- She drives incredibly slowly. (How slowly does she drive?)
- He drives extremely fast.

Note that adverbs have other functions, too. They can:

Modify a whole sentence: Obviously, I can't know everything.

Modify a prepositional phrase: It's immediately inside the door.

Adverbs of Manner List

Alphabetical list of common single-word manner adverbs
Adverbs of manner form the largest group of adverbs. We make most of them
simply by adding -ly to their corresponding adjective. This is an alphabetical
list of 130 common single-word adverbs of manner. Adverbs of manner that do
not end in -ly are shown in bold.
accidentally
angrily

anxiously
awkwardly
badly
beautifully
blindly
boldly
bravely
brightly
busily
calmly
carefully
carelessly
cautiously
cheerfully
clearly
closely
correctly
courageously
cruelly
daringly
deliberately
doubtfully
eagerly
easily
elegantly
enormously
enthusiastically
equally
eventually
exactly
faithfully
fast
fatally
fiercely
fondly
foolishly
fortunately

frankly
frantically
generously
gently
gladly
gracefully
greedily
happily
hard
hastily
healthily
honestly
hungrily
hurriedly
inadequately
ingeniously
innocently
inquisitively
irritably
joyously
justly
kindly
lazily
loosely
loudly
madly
mortally
mysteriously
neatly
nervously
noisily
obediently
openly
painfully
patiently
perfectly
politely

poorly
powerfully
promptly
punctually
quickly
quietly
rapidly
rarely
really
recklessly
regularly
reluctantly
repeatedly
rightfully
roughly
rudely
sadly
safely
selfishly
sensibly
seriously
sharply
shyly
silently
sleepily
slowly
smoothly
so
softly
solemnly
speedily
stealthily
sternly
straight
stupidly
successfully
suddenly

suspiciously
swiftly
tenderly
tensely
thoughtfully
tightly
truthfully
unexpectedly
victoriously
violently
vivaciously
warmly
weakly
wearily
well
wildly
wisely
Adverbs of Place List
Alphabetical list of common single-word place adverbs
about
above
abroad
anywhere
away
back
backwards (also backward)
behind
below
down
downstairs
east (etc)
elsewhere
far
here
in

indoors
inside
near
nearby
of
on
out
outside
over
there
towards
under
up
upstairs
where
Common suffixes

-wards or -ward (backwards, downwards, eastward, forwards,

homewards, upwards)

-where (anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere)

Note that some adverbs can also be prepositions.

She was waiting with a red scarf on. (adverb)

She put the red scarf on the table. (preposition)

Adverbs of Time List

List of common single-word time adverbs
points of time (definite):

now

then

today

tomorrow

tonight

yesterday

frequency (definite):

annually

daily

fortnightly

hourly

monthly

nightly

quarterly

weekly

yearly

The word "bimonthly" is ambiguous and best avoided. Bimonthly can mean
"twice a month"or "every two months". The same is true of
"biyearly"/"biannually".
frequency (indefinite):

always

constantly

ever

frequently

generally

infrequently

never

normally

occasionally

often

rarely

regularly

seldom

sometimes

regularly

usually

relationships in time (indefinite):

already

before

early

earlier

eventually

finally

first

formerly

just

last

late

later

lately

next

previously

recently

since

soon

still

yet

Adverbs of Degree List

Alphabetical list of common single-word degree adverbs
almost
absolutely
awfully*
badly*
barely
completely
decidedly
deeply
enough
enormously
entirely
extremely
fairly
far
fully

greatly
hardly
highly
how
incredibly
indeed
intensely
just
least
less
little
lots
most
much
nearly
perfectly
positively
practically
pretty*
purely
quite
rather
really
scarcely
simply
so
somewhat
strongly
terribly*
thoroughly
too
totally
utterly
very
virtually
well