When do you use adverbs?

Answer 1

Adverbs are used to describe verbs. They can add a specific mood or character to a verb and can drastically change its meaning and significance or simply lend the verb a bit of context, such as the adverb again. E.g 'She rang the door bell again.' This shows that the door bell has not been rung for the first time.

Many adverbs end with -ily, e.g happily or angrily.

Take the verb dream. On its own it can be quite a vague word; the sentence, 'He lay down and dreamt' does not say much about the nature of the dreaming, or how the person feels. If we apply the adverb peacefully into the sentence - 'He lay down and dreamt peacefully.' , we now know more about how the subject the subject (the person involved in the sentence) feels as he dreams. We can see at least that his dreaming is not troubled, disturbed or anxious.

Here are some other examples of where adverbs can be used to make a verb more interesting, you may notice that adverbs can be used in different parts of a sentence:

'He cunningly removed the cradle for her.'

'Thoughtfully, he removed the cradle for her.'

Here different adverbs have been applied to same verb (remove) and have

changed the intended meaning of that verb and of what the subject is doing.

Here are two more examples:

' I swam beautifully.'

' She swam terribly.'

An adverb can also describe another adverb, often to show the extent of the adverb, e.g

' He ran very quietly', 'She scowled extremely fiercely' or 'I hardly wrote carefully.'