The Adverb
Definition :
An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
An adverb tells where, when, how, or to what extent (how much, how
often, or how long).
Adverbs are most commonly used to modify verbs
and verb phrases.
Adverbs may modify verbs.
EXAMPLES:
Teresa spoke eloquently. [The adverb eloquently modifies
the verb spoke, telling how.]
Have you heard this melody before? [The adverb before
modifies the verb phrase Have heard, telling when.]
They searched everywhere. [The adverb everywhere modifies the verb searched, telling where.]
He had not read the contract thoroughly. [The adverbs not
and thoroughly modify the verb phrase had read, telling to
what extent.]
NOTE
The word not and its contraction, –n’t, are adverbs telling to
what extent.
Adverbs may modify adjectives.
EXAMPLES:
Phuong Vu is quite creative. [The adverb quite modifies the
adjective creative, telling to what extent.]
This species is found on an extremely remote island.
[The adverb extremely modifies the adjective remote, telling
to what extent.]
Adverbs may modify other adverbs.
EXAMPLES:
Jackie Joyner-Kersee runs remarkably swiftly. [The adverb
remarkably modifies the adverb swiftly, telling to what
extent.]
It’s too soon to know the results. [The adverb too modifies
the adverb soon, telling to what extent.]
Noun or Adverb?
Some words that are often used as nouns may also be used as adverbs.
EXAMPLES:
My parents left yesterday. [The noun yesterday is used as
an adverb telling when.]
They will return home Saturday. [The noun home is used as
an adverb telling where. The noun Saturday is used as an
adverb telling when.]
Adverbs Worksheet
Identify the adverbs and the words they modify in the following
sentences.
1. Yalow helped develop an extremely sensitive biological technique.
2. Radioimmunoassay, which is now used in laboratories around the
world, readily detects antibodies and hormones.
3. Yalow realized that anyone who proposes a distinctly new idea
must always anticipate that it will not be widely accepted at first.
4. Most scientists do not leap excitedly from the bath crying
“Eureka!” as people say Archimedes did.
5. Yalow and her colleague accidentally discovered radioimmunoassay while observing two patients.
6. After they carefully interpreted their observations, they arrived at
their exciting discovery.
7. In 1977, although Yalow’s collaborator had died, the Nobel Prize
Committee awarded Yalow and two other researchers the undeniably prestigious Nobel Prize for medicine.
8. Radioimmunoassay ultimately became a basic diagnostic tool in
very different areas of medicine.
9. According to Yalow, because people ordinarily resist change, the
technique was not quickly accepted.
10. She believes that progress cannot be impeded forever and that
good ideas are eventually accepted.