Adverbs of manner

Image   He drives very quickly.
 

Adverbs of manner tell us more about verbs - about how something happens.
 

We use them to answer the question, 'How?'

 

Use

Examples

 

To talk about how people do things.

 

They eat healthily.

 

The team members work efficiently together.

 

 

To talk about how things happen.

 

 

The sun's shining brightly.

 

The city is expanding rapidly.

 

 

To talk about changing trends and figures.

 

 

 

The situation is improving rapidly.

 

The temperature is falling steadily.

 

We expect the sales figures to increase slowly.

 


Regular adverbs are formed with an adjective and 'ly'. Sometimes, there are spelling changes.

 

 

Spelling rule

Examples

 

Add 'ly' to adjective.

 

 

 

Note that if an adjective ends in 'l', we still add 'ly' so we have 'lly'.

 

slowly           bravely

badly             quietly

seriously      strangely

 

carefully

beautifully

 

 

Adjectives ending in 'y' - change 'y' to 'i' and add 'ly'.

 

happy              happily

angry               angrily

lazy                  lazily

easy                 easily

noisy                noisily

 

 

Adjectives ending in a consonant + 'le' - drop 'e' and add 'y'.

 

 

 

gentle                        gently

reasonable                reasonably

simple                        simply

horrible                      horribly

 

 

Adjectives ending in 'ic' - add 'ally'.

 

Note that there is an exception: public          publicly

 

 

automatic           automatically

organic               organically

basic                   basically

energetic            energetically

 

 

 

Note that not all words that end in 'ly' are adverbs. Some adjectives also end in 'ly'. For example:

 

·         friendly

·         silly

·         lovely

·         likely

           

 

Adjective

Adverb

fast

fast

hard

hard

good

well

 

For example:

 

He speaks English well.

He speaks good English.

 

It's a fast car.

He drives fast.


Image        He dances badly.          

sleep dormir sommeil tired feet bed hotel lit   She's sleeping peacefully.

Image   They're working hard to find a solution.