Word Classes
Adverbs: how, when and where
Recognise an adverb, say whether it tells how, when or where, and build one from an adjective.
An adjective tells you more about a noun. An adverb tells you more about a verb — about the action itself. "The gate opened" tells you what happened; "The gate opened slowly" tells you how it happened.
Three questions an adverb answers
How? — slowly, loudly, neatly, well. When? — yesterday, soon, later, tomorrow. Where? — outside, upstairs, nearby, everywhere.
Most are built from adjectives
Add -ly to the adjective: quiet becomes quietly, sudden becomes suddenly. A word ending in a consonant plus -y changes the y to i: angry becomes angrily. A word ending in a consonant plus -le changes the -le to -ly: simple becomes simply.
Watch out
Not every word ending in -ly is an adverb. Friendly, lovely and lonely are adjectives: a friendly dog, a lonely road. You cannot say "she smiled friendly".
Worked example
Find the adverb in: The children waited patiently by the gate.
The verb is "waited".
That is the action the sentence is about, and an adverb attaches itself to the action.
Try it together
Build three adverbs, one for each spelling rule.
Each of these adjectives becomes an adverb a slightly different way.
1.Build the adverb from the adjective "brave". Nothing tricky here.
Have a go
What does the adverb tell you in "The bus arrived late"?
Ready to practise?
Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.