Man: Officer! Officer! I need help!
Officer: What seems to be the problem?
Man: Murder! There was a murder!
Officer: A murder?!
Man: A murder!
Officer: Where?
Man: Um...uh...there was a murder.
Officer: I heard that! Where was the murder?
Man: Um...hm...see I know there was a murder. There's a place. And I saw a murder.
Officer: But WHERE did you see it?
Man: I...don't know.
Officer: You don't know?
Man: I don't know.
Officer: Okay, well when was it?
Man: When was what?
Officer: THE MURDER!
Man: Okay see that's the thing. There was a day. Um...there was this day. And a murder. I saw it.
Officer: Today? Yesterday? What's going on?
Man: It happened!
Officer: Well, who was it? Who was killed?!
Man: Oh! I know that! It was a man that I met!
Officer: How did you meet him?!
Man: I...met him!
Officer: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
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Now, I imagine you're probably
BUT WAIT!
You, my friend, have stumbled quite conveniently right into the thick of my point.
So what did I intend to be gleaned from the dialogue above?
Well, for one thing, murder is wrong. We'll just go ahead and put that out there.
But the second, and arguably more important, message is that language is nothing without the adverb.
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An adverb is a word that can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. So basically most things.
An adverb can indicate manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as 'how,' 'when,' 'where,' and 'how much.'
Now, when identifying an adverb in its natural habitat, the easiest way to find one is to seek out the words ending in an -ly suffix.
Remember though! It's the -ly SUFFIX. Not just any old -ly. "Molly" does not mean "in a mol way." That doesn't even make sense. Why would you think that?
For instance, let's take the word "literally." This means "in a literal way." See? It's easy!
Side note: "Literally" means "in a literal way" or "actually" and "without exaggeration." There has been a recent trend among young people to use the word "literally" to mean something very not literal. So be aware. If you were to say, "I literally laughed to death," THIS is what you are implying:
Or if you said, "I was literally glued to my seat," THIS is what I envision:
The misuse of "literally" can be very confusing.
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| I literally punched his face off. |
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So -ly introduces an adverb in its most recognizable form, but just like being green, it's not that easy.
See, there are these things called adverbials. An adverbial is anything that behaves like an adverb (i.e. doing those things I mentioned above - manner, place, blah blah blah). BUT an adverbial is more all-encompassing. While an adverb is the singular word, an adverbial can be either a single word or a phrase.
So they behave in the same way but look a little different.
But FIRST, let's look at all the different types of adverbs. There are lots.
1. So, closely linked to the -ly adverbs are the adverbs that tell how something was done or the manner in which it was done.
EXAMPLES: fleetingly, happily, gruesomely, flabbily
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| Her face hung droopily. |
2. The next kind of adverb denotes where something happened.
EXAMPLES: inside, somewhere, there, upstairs
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| My llama here thinks it's a flamingo. |
3. The third kind of adverb tells when something happens.
EXAMPLES: today, often, early, always
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| Yesterday, my cactus died. |
4. Adverbs can also tell the extent of an action (the extent to which something is done or an action was executed).
EXAMPLES: enough, too, rather, only
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| Skiing was very scary, and I also almost died. |
It does so by putting more or less emphasis on the word, amplifying the meaning or toning it down.
EXAMPLES: really, so, somewhat, almost
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| I really hate wearing shoes. |
Now, adverbials are a little different. Essentially they are adverb phrases that can tell how, when, where, and to what extent or purpose. A lot of times, they start with a preposition or the infinitive form of a verb.
EXAMPLES: with a hammer, to buy an eggplant, every Wednesday, under the bear
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| The whale brushed its hair with a whalebrush. |
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