Kinds of Adverbs

1. Interrogatives: when, where, how, why; used to introduce questions.
2. Relatives: when, where, how, why, as; sometimes words such as before, after, since.
3. Negatives: Not, never, neither, nor, little, hardly, scarcely, seldom; may introduce sentences or may appear within sentences.
4. Direction: Up, down; back, forth; over, under; also the second word in a phrasal verb such as "give up" (cede). "Up" is not a preposition as it does not take an object and works with the verb as part of its meaning.
5. Descriptive: all that do not fit the above groups. They may be formed from adjectives, often by adding –ly, and they may also have comparative and superlative forms. Often used as sentence adverbs.

Sentence adverbs are those that function within a sentence; they qualify all that follows. Thus they may have various positions according to meaning or effect.

Adverbs of direction usually follow the verb: "Put down the gun." Inversions such as "Up it came and down it went" are considered "poetic license" and are frowned upon in standard usage.

In phrasals (two part verbs such as turn in), adverbs may follow the object. "Turn your paper in promptly." It may also precede the object: "Turn in your paper promptly." If the object of the verb is a pronoun, the pronoun precedes the adverb.

When the adverb modifies the verb itself, the usual position is before the verb, especially for emphasis.

Normal position for an adverb, except for sentence adverbs, is in front of the word it modifies. The adverb comes before an adjective: "Very tall." "Most interesting."

In a series of adverbs, each qualifies only the one after it: "Not so very well made." The order of adverbs after a verb is usually but not always: Manner, place, time.

"They walked slowly home at night." ("Home" is an adverb that tells where; "At night" is an adverbial prepositional phrase that tells when.)

However, subtle differences can result from adverb location:

They walked home slowly at night.
At night, they walked home slowly. Or: "walked slowly"
Slowly, they walked home at night.
Slowly at night they walked home.

In declarative sentences, adverbs normally appear before or inside the verb.

In the simple present or past, adverbs come between the subject and verb: "He seldom remembers where he left his car keys." With other tenses, the adverb comes after the first auxiliary: "It has rarely happened." "They will surely remember . . ."

Putting the adverb before the auxiliary gives it extra emphasis: "They surely will remember . . ."

When the adverb comes after the last auxiliary and before the main verb, it modifies the verb itself: "This issue has been widely supported."

In commands (imperatives), the adverb usually follows the verb: "Walk slowly." "Blend well." An exception occurs with always and never which usually come before the verb: "Always tell the truth." "Never tell a lie."

In negatives, not can't stand before the first unit of the verb or after the main verb, except with solo "be" verbs (present or past tense): "It is not" is OK. "He comes not" is not accepted. A "do" auxiliary is needed. "He does not come."

In other tenses the negative comes after the first auxiliary: "He has not come home yet." "This will not please your parents." "My book is not coming out until next year."

With transitive verbs (taking an object), adverbs may come after the object, but never between verb and object. "He told the story rapidly." "He slowly told the story."

With intransitive verbs (no object), the adverb may come before or after the verb: "The noise suddenly stopped." "It stopped suddenly." With both transitive or intransitive verbs, the further the adverb is from the verb, the more emphatic it becomes.

With linking verbs (except present and past of be), an adverb may come before the verb or after the complement, but not between them: "We soon became friends." "The trees became barren overnight."

With "be" verbs in the present and past tenses, the adverb may come between the verb and complement: "This is clearly wrong." "I am so very sorry."

A sentence adverb may come first, but it is very emphatic: "Surely they will remember."

Interrogative adverbs always come first in questions: "Who said that?' "Where do you live?' "What did he say?"

Negative adverbs usually come first and often (but not always) invert the verb or the first auxiliary: "Rarely has he raised his voice." "Not once has she been late." But: "Neither John nor Mary came to the party." "Not a word was spoken." If the negative follows the verb, it qualifies (modifies) only the words after it: "Boys are often taught not to cry."

A Special Case. Conjunctive adverbs, such as therefore, still, then, nevertheless, moreover, are hybrids: adverbs and conjunctions at the same time. They often come at the start of a clause, but may come, set off by commas, a bit later and be "tucked in." For example: "Therefore, this action must be taken now." "This action, therefore, must be taken now."