English Grammar Workshop

Adverbs

C Remind yourself

C Test yourself

C Check your answers

A Llanguage Llamas Production

Introduction This resource has been designed to support students in their understanding of English

grammar and terminology. The resource is in three parts: ‘Remind Yourself’ and ‘Test

Yourself’ pages and an ‘Answer key’. The ‘Remind Yourself’ hand-out defines the

terminology and provides examples, the ‘Test Yourself’ hand-out allows the students to

practice their skills and reinforce the learning of the terms. The ‘Answer key’ allows for peer

or self-marking.

Acknowledgements Frame graphics by Dancing Crayon. Licensed from Dancing Crayon Designs

© www.DancingCrayon.com

Bullet point graphics licensed from Kimberly Geswein at © KG Fonts

Notice This resource has not been designed for any particular exam or course and the onus remains

on each teacher and institution to make sure that it is appropriate for the courses taught.

English Language Specialists do not all agree on the use of some terms e.g.

pronoun/adjective/determiner and it is the teacher’s responsibility in the light of this to

decide how to use this resource to supplement their teaching.

Copyright © Lucy Meredith. All rights reserved. Designed for classroom and personal use.

Permission is granted to the purchasing teacher/institution to reproduce this resource for

educational use within an educational institution or for private tutoring. Distribution other

than permitted above will constitute copyright infringement. Fonts and graphics are

copyrighted and may not be extracted and reused. Credits for font, graphics and extracts are

given in the ‘Acknowledgements’ section above.

Remind yourself: Adverbs An adverb is a word which modifies your understanding of a verb, an adjectives, or another

adverb, e.g. ‘He walks quickly’, ‘I arrived yesterday’, ‘How old are you?’ ‘You are very

strong.’

It may make it easier to identify adverbs if you understand the different functions adverbs

have in language. Adverbs give information about how something is done, when, where, how

often and to what degree.

Adverbs give you information about:

! Manner (the way in which an action is done) – happily, sadly, rapidly, loudly, quietly,

perfectly e.g. ‘He sat quietly during the meeting.’ Note that most of these end with

the suffix ‘ly’.

! Time – tomorrow, later, now, at once, just, already, last night e.g. ‘I have to go to

college tomorrow.’

! Place – inside, outside, here, there, down, up e.g. ‘Come here!’

! Frequency – always, never, often, sometimes, occasionally, monthly, twice, again,

finally e.g. ‘I always text my friends on the way to college.’

! Attitudes/opinions/direction of the text – actually, frankly, so, anyway, incidentally

e.g. ‘Frankly, I think he is being very stupid .’

! Degree – really, quite, very, too, nearly, enough, absolutely e.g. ‘I quite like my new

job but not as much as I had hoped.’

! Certainty/uncertainty – probably, maybe, possibly, definitely, surely, perhaps e.g. ‘I

will probably go to college next year.’

Adverbs are also used to ask questions – How? Why? When? Where? e.g. ‘How did you do in

the exam?

Adverbs, like adjectives, have comparative and superlative forms.

Many are regular: rapidly - more rapidly - most rapidly

Others are irregular: well – better – best badly - worse – worst

Test Yourself: Adverbs

Read the sentences below about the common mole and underline the adverbs. The number in

brackets at the end of each sentence tells you how many adverbs to look for. The first one has

been done for you.

1. Common moles inhabit woods, fields, meadows and occasionally gardens. (1)

2. They can be easily recognized by their black fur and shovel-like front paws. (1)

3. Interestingly, moles have an extra thumb on each front paw. (1)

4. They have very small eyes and no external ears. (1)

5. They construct burrows underground with separate chambers for living, sleeping and

raising young. (1)

6. Moles are rarely seen because they seldom come to the surface in daylight. (2)

7. They eat a diet of mainly earthworms but will also eat slugs and insects. (2)

8. Moles generally live solitary lives in separate territories. (1)

9. A male and female mate in spring and then separate again. (2)

10. Rival males, meeting in the mating season, often fight ferociously, frequently resulting

in the death of the loser. (3)

11. Gestation is usually 30 days producing a litter of 3-6 young. (1)

12. The young are born completely blind. (1)

Check Your Answers: Adverbs

1. occasionally

2. easily

3. interestingly

4. very

5. underground

6. rarely, seldom

7. mainly, also

8. generally

9. then, again

10. often, ferociously, frequently

11. usually

12. completely