Adverbs for beginners

What is an adverb?

 An adverb is a word which can describe a verb, but it can also modify an adjective. It may sound complicated because it’s so flexible, but that’s actually why we use them so much.

How can I use them with verbs?

 Two weeks ago we talked about verbs and what they are, adverbs tell us how. Adverbs are an opportunity for us to talk about the way in which something is done, whether that’s slowly, quickly, gracefully, or foolishly. There are countless more examples, and many of them end with the suffix -ly. One thing to remember about adverbs is that you want to put them as close to what you’re describing as possible.

Here’s an example:

“The idol sat silently in the ruins until it was found by the archeologist.”

 If you remember my first blog, an “idol” can be a symbol of something spiritual or divine. Moving on from that, our example “silently” can be understood by removing the -ly to give us the root word silent. The way that this idol sat in the ruins can be described as silent, it’s adverb is “silently.”

Let’s try one more:

“He nervously waited for his date at the restaurant.”

 Can you tell me the way in which he waited for his date? If you said nervously, you’d be right. Something has him on edge or uncomfortable. Maybe she won’t quite look like her picture? Maybe she won’t show up? What do you think are some other reasons why he might be nervous?

Let’s talk about adjectives

 As we discussed in our previous blog, adjectives describe nouns. We can say all kinds of things about a noun and I’ll bet you’ve learned many more adjectives since the last blog. Now let’s talk about describing that adjective, we can most often do this by describing the amount or intensity of the adjective.

 Here’s an example:

“Brandy is very kind.”

 This is one of the most common examples of an adverb which describes an adjective, very. “Very” means there’s a lot of this, and it can go with any adjective. This sentence isn’t just saying that Brandy is kind in a casual sense, but that her kindness is more than the typical amount of kindness that one might find in other people.

“Karla is incredibly smart.”

 How would you describe Karlas intelligence? If you said incredible, you’d be right. We used the -ly suffix again with incredible to describe smart, which describes her. Let’s try one more,

“Raymond was obscenely rude to the waiter before he was thrown out of the restaurant.”

 I can’t say that I feel bad for Raymond, if I were his waiter I’d do the same thing! How rude was Raymond? His rudeness was obscene, which means that the things he was saying or doing were taboo, offensive, and just indecent. Enjoy the gutters Raymond, while we add an -ly to the horrible way you conducted yourself.

How about a WHOLE sentence?

 Yes, you can modify an entire sentence with an adverb. The way that you do this is by adding it to the beginning of the sentence itself. Here’s an example:

 “Fortunately, Nancy had put a spare key under her welcome mat in case she locked herself out.”

 We’ve all done it before, you lock the door and forget your keys inside. Typically we would have some choice words to describe this situation. Nancys case is a little different, because she remembered to put a spare key under the welcome mat. We could describe Nancy as…FORTUNATE. She’s so fortunate that we can add an -ly to describe this situation because it almost turned out badly. Let’s try one more,

“Thankfully, I would be working with Myra that afternoon. She’s an awesome supervisor who always has a clear plan.”

 I would hope that we’ve all had a supervisor or a coworker like Myra. We are thankful to work with her, and so we add an -ly and put it at the beginning of our sentence to describe how we feel. The follow up sentence is helpful because it tells the reader WHY we are thankful, but you can do that with a compound sentence too as long as you don’t overuse commas.

Don’t overdo it 

 One last piece of advice that I have for this blog post, don’t overuse adverbs. The right amount can get your point across effectively, but too many will make the sentence sound sloppy and difficult to follow. I like to think of adverbs as a fine steak sauce. It’s expensive, so if you do use it you do so in small amounts. If you do want to use some adverbs, it’s ok and now you know how. Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope that you have a wonderful day!

New vocab word!

Graciously

Adverb

In a kind, courteous manner. Someone is being characterized by their generous way of doing something.

Doing something with ease or comfortably.

Example:

 “Hong graciously let her neighbors stay in her guest bedroom while they rebuilt their home after the hurricane.”

 In this example, Hong is doing her neighbors a huge favor. After a natural disaster, many people are displaced and have nowhere to go. Because Hong is so kind, her neighbors don’t have to worry about that.