How to identify adverbs in a sentence

Identifying an adverb in a sentence can be a little tricky at times but if we know certain questions of adverbs, and then we can identify an adverb easily in a sentence.

First, let me remind you what an adverb is.

An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb by making its meaning more specific. 

Below of some of the adverb questions related to different types of adverbs. When we think about a certain word in a sentence as an adverb, then we can ask these adverb questions, given below, to identify the function of the word in that sentence.

• How something occurs
• When something occurs
• Where something occurs
• Why something occurs
• How frequently something occurs
• To what degree something occurs

Adverb as a Verb Modifier

Let’s first look through an example of how it functions as a verb modifier.

Uzma silently enters in her class.

Procedure to identify an adverb: 

First, look for the word you think is an adverb, and then find the verb you think it gets modified by the word.In the above sentence, “silently” is our adverb which is modifying the verb “enters”. Now let us put it to the test using the questions.

How does Uzma enter in her class? The answer is “silently”. 

It can be seen that the word we identify is really modifying our verb and that’s how we’ve proven the silently is our adverb. 

Trick: If there is an answer to your question, that answer is your adverb.

Remember that an adverb can also come after a verb. For example:

Uzma studies well. 

Here, “well” modifies the studies of Uzma and it comes after the verb.Let’s take a look at another example of identifying an adverb.

Zara has completely done her homework.

In the above sentence, the word “completely” could be an adverb but let’s put it to the test in order to verify it as an adverb.

To what extent has Zara done her homework? The answer is “completely”. Again, we’ve proven it.

Adverb as an Adjective Modifier

As we said that adverb can also modify an adjective, therefore, let’s look at the following examples to see how it works.

Al-Reyyan is an extremely friendly boy.

In this example, “boy” is a noun and “friendly” is its modifier, therefore, friendly is an adjective here. We can also check it by using adjective questions.

What kind of boy? The answer is “friendly”. So clearly it is an adjective but does the word “extremely” also modifies “boy”? Let’s try our adjective questions.

What kind of lady? Off course, we cannot answer it as “extremely”.  It does not make sense, does it? 

Let’s put it to an adverb question.

To what degree is Al-Reyyan a friendly boy? The answer is “Extremely”. Because the word “extremely” answers the adverb question, therefore, it is an adverb which modifies “friendly” which in return modifies “boy”.

Adverb modifying another adverb

Now let’s talk about some of the sentences where an adverb is modifying another adverb.

Very often, she goes to the gym.

To identify the adverb, let’s put it to the test through adverb questions.

How often she goes to the gym? The answer is often, isn’t it? Again, the word which has answered the adverb’s question is an adverb. But what about the word “very”?

To what degree was it often? The answer is very often.  Clearly the word “very” is modifying the adverb “often”. In this way, an adverb can modify another adverb.

Places of an Adverb

Now when an adverb modifies a verb, it can go almost anywhere in a sentence. For example

Alisha was crying badly.

Alisha was badly crying.

Alisha badly was crying.

Badly, Alisha was crying.

When an adverb modifies an adjective or an adverb, it must appear immediately before the word it modifies. For example

My very dear friend needs money.

In this example, “dear” modifies the noun “friend”, therefore, it is an adjective. And the word “very”
coming before it modifies “dear”.

Which friend = Dear friend

Dear to what extent = Very

He almost always takes extra time in the examinations.

We know about the pronoun and the verb. In order to identify an adverb and words it modifies, we need to put it to our adverb questions.

When does he take extra time in the examinations? The answer is “always”, so always modifies our verb.  The adverb “always” is then followed by the word “almost” which is an adverb of degree answering to what extent. In this example, one adverb is modifying another adverb.

In this way, you can place or identify an adverb in a sentence. But let me tell you one more thing.

The following words are always adverbs when followed by a verb: not, really and very.