The Adverb English Grammar For Class 6
The Adverb
An Adverb is a word that modifies a Verb, an Adjective, a Preposition, Conjunction or another Adverb.
Examples:
1. She walks carefully.
2. We live here.
3. He is always late.
4. The peacock dances gracefully.
5. My mother was quite happy.
6. Mr. Chandra works very hard.
7. This horse runs fast.
8. He is very honest.
The words ‘carefully’, ‘here’, ‘late’, ‘gracefully’, ‘quite’, ‘very’ and ‘fast are Adverbs.
In sentence 1, adverb ‘carefully’ modifies the verb ‘walks’.
In sentence 2, adverb ‘here’ modifies the verb ‘live’.
In sentence 3, adverb ‘late’ modifies the adverb ‘always’.
In sentence 4, adverb ‘gracefully’ modifies the verb ‘dances’.
In sentence 5, adverb ‘quite’ modifies the adjective ‘happy’.
In sentence 6, adverb ‘very’ modifies the adjective ‘hard’.
In sentence 7, adverb ‘fast’ modifies the verb ‘runs’.
In sentence 8, adverb ‘very’ modifies the adjective ‘honest’.
KINDS OF ADVERBS
There are six kinds of Adverbs:
1. Adverbs of Manner
2. Adverbs of Place
3. Adverbs of Time
4. Adverbs of Frequency
5. Adverbs of Degree
6. Interrogative Adverbs
1. ADVERBS OF MANNER
Adverbs of manner indicate how an action takes place.
Examples:
1. He spoke loudly.
2. She walked fast.
3. They were hit badly.
4. He comes to school punctually.
5. He entered the room quietly.
6. The captain fought bravely.
7. The tortoise walks slowly.
8. The patient slept soundly.
9. She cannot speak clearly.
The following are some of the adverbs of manner:
beautifully, carefully, kindly, badly, well, suspiciously, reluctantly, secretly, foolishly, generously, stupidly, etc.
An Adverb of Manner answers the question: How? or In what manner?
It is generally placed just after the verb.
2 ADVERBS OF PLACE
Adverbs of Place indicate where an action takes place.
Examples:
1. We stayed there for a week.
2. My bedroom is just above.
3. My brother is sitting outside.
4. The birds flew away.
5. The army marched forward.
6. We looked for the child everywhere.
7. The guest room is upstairs.
The following are some of the adverbs of place:
away, everywhere, here, nowhere, somewhere, there, inside, outside, etc.
An Adverb of Place answers the question: Where?
It is placed after the verb.
3. ADVERBS OF TIME
Adverbs of Time tell when the action takes place.
Examples:
1. I shall finish the work soon.
2. Vijay finished the question paper early.
3. He has not come to school today.
4. Anil met me yesterday.
5. I get up early.
6. The salesman came late.
7. My mother goes to the temple daily.
8. The programme is going to begin soon.
The following are some of the adverbs of time:
afterwards, lately, now, soon, then, today, tomorrow, yesterday, ago, etc.
An Adverb of Time answers the question: When? or At what time?
It is placed either at the beginning or at the end of a sentence.
4. ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY
An Adverb of Frequency indicates how often or how frequently an action takes place.
Examples:
1. He never comes here.
2. She rarely worked hard.
3. I called at your office twice.
4. Sharmila often visits my place.
5. She frequently goes to visit her teacher.
6. Umesh always stands first in the class.
The following are some adverbs of frequency:
always, usually, frequently, often, sometimes, occasionally, rarely, seldom, never, once, twice, ever, repeatedly, etc.
An Adverb of Frequency answers the question: How often?
It is usually placed before the Verb.
5. ADVERBS OF DEGREE
An Adverb of Quantity or Degree tells ‘how much’ or ‘to what degree’ something is done.
Examples:
1. He speaks very loudly.
2. The milk is too hot. I can’t drink it.
3. He is quite rich.
4. She was much tired.
5. His face was extremely red with anger.
6. The headmaster was almost angry.
7. The cup is nearly full.
The following are some of the adverbs of quantity or degree:
away, almost, completely, enough, entirely, extremely, fairly, far, hardly, just, much, nearly, quite, very, scarcely, too, little, only.
An Adverb of Qantity or Degree answers the question: How Much or To What Degree?
It is usually placed before an adverb or an adjective.
6 INTERROGATIVE ADVERBS
An Interrogative Adverb is used to begin a question. Look at the Interrogative Adverbs used in the following sentences:
1. When were you born?
2. Why did you come late?
3. How often do you take bath in the summer?
4. How did you cross the bridge?
5. Where do you live?
6. How long does it take to reach Mumbai by train?
Interrogative Adverbs ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ used in the above sentences ask questions about time, place, manner, number and reason. When Interrogative Adverbs are used for joining sentences, these are called Relative Adverbs.
Example:
The place where the accident took place is nearby.
Exercise 1
Circle the Adverbs in the following sentences and write their types in the space provided. The first one has been done for you.
1. He looked down. (down) (Adverb of Place)
2. Divya came early.
3. She left the room quietly.
4. The train will arrive shortly.
5. The old man looked at me angrily.
6. I shall visit him tomorrow.
7. You must try again.
8. The crow looked for water here and there.
9. I visit my place of birth once a year.
10. The man lifted the box easily.
11. He has put the book somewhere.
12. They climbed the hill quickly.
13. My father is always punctual.
14. Ram is coming before noon.
15. He spoke loudly.
Exercise 2
Fill in the blanks with adverbs of degree and interrogative adverbs:
1. ……………….. don’t you tell the truth?
2. ………………. did India become free?
3. ……………… does your father work?
4. He was …………………… surprised to see me there.
5. This is a ……………. interesting story.
6. He is tall …………………. to touch the ceiling.
7. ……….. far is your school from here?
8. …………………. often do you play tennis?
9. He has solved ………………. one sum.
10. ……………. did you come home from office?
11. I cannot sit up in the bed, I am…………………. weak.
12. My uncle is………………. younger than my father.
Exercise 3
Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with suitable adverbs given in the box:
why, totally, too, when, quite, always, here, ago, yesterday, never, once, very, often, how
1. Bring the box of chalk ……………..
2. Your answer is ………….. right.
3. I ………………. disagree with you.
4. The Sun……………. rises in the east.
5. Sita sings ……………. sweetly.
6. …………… is the sky blue?
7. ………. do you come to school?
8. This old building was built many years ………………..
9. The teacher does not like him because he is …………………… late to school.
10. His uncle smokes ………………… many cigarettes.
11. We went to see a film ………………..
12. He visited us only …………………
13. ……………….. does your school begin?
14. Wood ……………….. floats on water.
Exercise 4
Rewrite the following sentences, replacing words in italics with proper adverbs:
1. All of a sudden, a loud noise from the window awakened me.
2. We ate in a hurry.
3. They lived there in peace.
4. Her eyes looked bright in a strange way.
5. The young sportsman looked at his trophy with pride.
6. They met by accident.
7. The hunter faced the lion without fear.
8. They looked at each other with uncertainty.
9. The young men fought like heroes.
10. The police beat the prisoner without mercy.
RECOGNISING ADVERBS
Very often, Adverbs have the same forms as the corresponding Adjectives. Sometimes we are not sure whether a word is an Adjective or an Adverb. Let us review the definitions of two parts of speech:
· An Adjective describes a Noun or Pronoun.
Nancy is tall. (Tall’ describes height of Nancy)
‘Nancy’ is noun, therefore ‘tall’ is an adjective.
· An adverb answers a question about a Verb in a sentence.
Nancy lives there. (‘there’ tells us where Nancy lives)
‘Lives’ is a verb, therefore there is an adverb.
Read the following sentences carefully:
Adjectives
1. The grandmother told us a long story.
2. I do not earn much money.
3. Ravi sits on the back bench.
4. I am an early riser.
5. My friend is a fast runner.
Adverbs
1. She waited long for us.
2. This book is much better.
3. The army marched back.
4. We reached there early.
5. My friend runs fast.
FORMATION OF ADVERBS
1. Most Adverbs of Manner are formed from Adjectives by adding ‘-ly’:
light – lightly
brave – bravely
cheerful – cheerfully
careless – carelessly
active – actively
sure – surely
beautiful – beautifully
Sometimes, we have to change the spellings slightly before adding ‘-ly’:
easy – easily
lazy- lazily
noise -noisily
heavy – heavily
simple – simply
angry -angrily
2. Sometimes when we form an adverb by adding ‘-ly’ to an adjective, we get an adverb with quite a different meaning. So we get two adverbs with two different meanings: hard-hardly, late-lately, direct-directly.
Rohit works hard. (very hard-working)
Rohit hardly works. (does not work much)
The train came late. (not on time)
Did you meet him lately? (recently)
We went direct to the Principal. (straight)
The manager will see you directly. (soon) (direct is also an adverb)
3. Certain words that end in -ly, are not adverbs. These are adjectives. Here are some examples:
1. We played a friendly match against D.A.V. School. (qualifies match)
2. This food has a sickly taste. (qualifies taste)
3. He has a deep manly voice. (qualifies voice)
POSITION OF ADVERBS
Adverbs are words which modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. These cannot be placed anywhere in a sentence. The following are the rules are usually used in positioning Adverbs in a sentence.
1. Adverbs of Manner, Place and Time are placed after the verb if the verb is intransitive and after the object if the verb is transitive.
Examples:
1. The actor played his role efficiently.
2. He attends his classes regularly.
3. The clown laughed heartily.
4. The child wept bitterly.
2. (i) Adverbs of Frequency (never, always, often, seldom, etc.), (ii) Adverbs of Degree (just, almost, quite, nearly, etc.) and (iii) some Adverbs of Manner are placed:
(a) after the verb if the verb is: is/are/am/was/were.
Examples: He is often absent from the practical classes.
We were quite in time for the movie.
(b) between the subject and the verb if the verb consists of one word.
Examples: Meena often goes to the market.
He never comes to the school in time.
He secretly entered the room.
(c) after the first word if the verb consists of more than one word.
Examples: The postman has often delivered their letters.
He has willingly accepted this job.
(d) before the verbs have to’ and ‘used to’.
Examples: We often have to work on holidays.
She always used to visit my place on Sundays.
Exercise 5
Rewrite the following sentences, using the Adverbs in brackets in their proper place:
Examples: 1. They have lost the game. (nearly)
They have nearly lost the game.
2. The movie was good (fairly).
The movie was fairly good.
1. I have seen such a dull boy. (never)
2. The Sun rises in the East. (always)
3. The child speaks English. (fluently)
4. This shirt is expensive. (rather)
5. The girl was loved by her parents. (much).
6. It is a sweet song. (very)
7. I shall do such a mistake. (never/again).
8. My mother was surprised at my story. (quite).
9. He is late for the class. (usually)
10. I am glad to see you. (too)
11. The story is interesting. (quite)
12. The train has arrived. (just)
13. He has slept an hour before. (only)
14. The policeman ran fast to overtake the thief. (enough)
15. She went and returned with some food for the beggar. (inside)
Exercise 6
Rewrite the following sentences by using proper Adverbs in place of phrases in italics:
Examples: 1. This magazine is printed every month.
This magazine is printed monthly.
2. She lives a little distance away.
She lives nearby.
1. A farmer works in the open air.
(openly, outdoors, out in open, outside)
2. She acted in a silly manner.
(foolishly, stupidly, silly, badly)
3. The book is at this place.
(there, here, near)
4. We looked for you in all places.
(here and there, everywhere, all over)
5. My brother telephoned me two times.
(twice, twicely)
6. The nurse entered the sick room without making any noise.
(secretly, quietly, stealthily, peacefully)
7. The soldiers fought with courage.
(boldly, courageously)
8. He knocked again and again, but no one opened the door.
(regularly, repeatedly, many times)
9. Mohan is late for school at all times.
(regularly, always, for ever, every time)
10. Why are you sitting at that place?
(here, there, their)