Adverbs are one of the four main parts of speech in English. The other three are verbs, nouns and adjectives.

Adverbs are normally used to describe a verb, which will give us more information to help us understand that verb better. For example, an adverb could tell us how an action is done, e.g. “He walks quickly”.

An adverb can also be used to modify an adjective, e.g. “He is very quick”. However, it can also modify another adverb, e.g. “He walks too quickly”.

Many adverbs in English, such as ‘quickly’, end in ‘-ly’, so that makes them easy to recognise, but not every word that ends in ‘-ly’ is an adverb! Also, some adverbs don’t end in ‘-ly’, such as ‘fast’. You could say “He walks fast”, which is an adverb, but you could also say “He’s a fast walker”, which is an adjective, not an adverb!

Adverbs can have different meanings and functions, such as expressing manner, place, time, frequency, degree, certainty, and opinion, so it is very important to understand them better. This series of videos will help you to feel a lot more confident when using adverbs in English.