Distinguishing between adverbs and other parts of speech
Traditional grammars of English classify all words in eight different groups which they call "parts of speech": articles, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. This does not mean, however, that one word can belong only to one of these groups. Quite on the contrary, many words belong to several groups. For instance, the word "back" can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or adverb:
- He stood with his back to the door. ( back denotes a body part, noun)
- Her parents backed her in her choice of career. (back denotes the action of supporting somebody, verb)
- We were sitting in the back row. (back modifies the row, adjective)
- Sit back and relax. (back denotes the direction of movement, adverb)
Why does this happen? The answer lies in the simple fact that words cannot be defined on their own but only through their interaction with other words in a phrase, clause or sentence. So you cannot learn that "by", "fast" and "hard" are adverbs and always classify them as such in any sentence. You need to realise what their function is to be able to determine to which parts of speech they belong.
A. Distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives
1. One of the reasons why it can be difficult to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs is that some adverbs and adjectives have the same form, that is, that one word can be used as either. Apart from "back" (which can also be a noun and a verb) there are also: deep, direct, early, fast, hard, high, ill, late, little, near, pretty, straight, well, wrong etc.
To establish what parts of speech they are you need to determine what function they perform in a sentence. An adverb modifies another adverb, a verb or an adjective (sometimes a whole clause as explained in my previous post http://enya-books.blogspot.com/2012/03/adverbs.html) while an adjective modifies a noun (either being placed before it or after a linking verb). Some examples of using words as adverbs and using them as adjectives are:
a) used as adverbs:
- He stood with his hands deep in his pockets. (a long way inside of/ into something; adverb of place)
- We arrived early. (before the usual/expected time; adverb of time)
- They worked hard. (with great effort; adverb of manner)
- The animals have been ill-treated.* (badly; adverb of manner)
- She is pretty tall for her age. (quite; adverb of degree)
- The kids behaved well. (in a good, acceptable way; adverb of manner)
* ill is used as a part of a compound in this example
b) used as adjectives:
- We walked through a deep snow to get to school. (adjective describing snow)
- You are early! I didn't expect you before eight. (adjective following the linking verb be )
- It is hard to see how they can lose. (adjective following a linking verb)
- You look ill. (adjective following a linking verb)
- Such a pretty garden! (adjective describing garden)
- I don't feel very well. (adjective following a linking verb)
As you can see it is quite simple to distinguish between adverbs and adjectives when adjectives are placed before a noun (deep snow vs. deep in his pockets; a pretty garden vs. pretty tall) if we have in mind the functions which these parts of speech normally perform. However, it may be somewhat harder to distinguish between adverbs and adjectives that come after verbs.
To be able to make this distinction more easily you need to learn about the so-called linking verbs (there are about 30 altoghether) as opposed to full verbs. Full verbs are always modified by adverbs, while linking verbs are followed by adjectives or nouns. The most frequent linking verbs are be, become and seem, but there are also appear, feel, get/grow, keep, look, make, smell, sound, taste, turn etc. However, English being fond of complications does not give you a luxury to recognise these linking verbs in a sentence and say, "Aha! The word after it must be an adjective!". Why? Because most of these verbs can act as both full verbs and linking verbs. Fortunately, all you need to know is whether they describe a deliberate action (=full verb) or an involuntary action (=linking verb) and you will know what to expect after it: an adverb or an adjective. Another useful test for linking verbs is the replacement by "be" and if the sentence remains meaningful you have got a linking verb :)
Examples:
1. We arrived early. (always a full verb, adverb of time) vs. You are early. (a linking verb, adjective describing time)
* be can be followed by an obligatory adverbial (e.g. He is here.)
2. He looked angrily at her. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. He looked pale. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)
3. He turned swiftly to face his foe. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. The weather has turned cold. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)
4. He tasted the soup suspiciously. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. The soup tasted horrible. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)
2. Many adverbs have an -ly ending (beautifully, slowly, quickly, magically, swiftly etc.) and some of them can be used as adjectives (kindly, daily, monthly, weekly, leisurely). There are, however, some adjectives with this ending which cannot be used as adverbs too! Such adjectives are: lovely, lonely, lively, friendly, cowardly, silly, ugly, manly and homely.
* Thomson-Martinet's grammar mentions "likely" as such an adjective, although I have found it listed as an adverb too in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
B. Distinguishing between adverbs and nouns/prepositions
So far I have written only about distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives, but you should also note that some words can be used as adverbs and nouns too, or as adverbs and prepositions.
First, I will list a few examples of words which can be used as both adverbs and nouns:
* upstairs:
- The cat belongs to the people who live upstairs. (adverb: Where do they live?)
- We've converted the upstairs into an office. (noun: What have we converted into an office?)
* outdoors:
- The rain prevented them from eating outdoors. (eating where?)
- They both have a love of the outdoors. (a love of what?)
Similarly, a word can be used as both an adverb or a preposition:
* by:
- Just drive by. Don't stop. (by = past; adverb)
- a house by the river (by= next to; preposition which normally comes before a noun, pronoun or a gerund)
* near:
- The exams are drawing near. (adverb)
- Nobody else comes near her in intellect. (preposition)
C. Distinguishing between adverbs and verbs
Finally, there are words which can be used as adverbs and verbs as well. Some of them I have already used in examples, such as "back"and also "near" ( The project is nearing completion.). Since verbs have different inflections (endings denoting time etc) from those of adverbs and adjectives and since their function in a sentence is quite different it is easier to differentiate between them and adverbs (or adjectives and nouns).
Please feel free to suggest corrections if you spot any mistakes and ask for a clarification of anything said in the post.
- He stood with his back to the door. ( back denotes a body part, noun)
- Her parents backed her in her choice of career. (back denotes the action of supporting somebody, verb)
- We were sitting in the back row. (back modifies the row, adjective)
- Sit back and relax. (back denotes the direction of movement, adverb)
Why does this happen? The answer lies in the simple fact that words cannot be defined on their own but only through their interaction with other words in a phrase, clause or sentence. So you cannot learn that "by", "fast" and "hard" are adverbs and always classify them as such in any sentence. You need to realise what their function is to be able to determine to which parts of speech they belong.
A. Distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives
1. One of the reasons why it can be difficult to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs is that some adverbs and adjectives have the same form, that is, that one word can be used as either. Apart from "back" (which can also be a noun and a verb) there are also: deep, direct, early, fast, hard, high, ill, late, little, near, pretty, straight, well, wrong etc.
To establish what parts of speech they are you need to determine what function they perform in a sentence. An adverb modifies another adverb, a verb or an adjective (sometimes a whole clause as explained in my previous post http://enya-books.blogspot.com/2012/03/adverbs.html) while an adjective modifies a noun (either being placed before it or after a linking verb). Some examples of using words as adverbs and using them as adjectives are:
a) used as adverbs:
- He stood with his hands deep in his pockets. (a long way inside of/ into something; adverb of place)
- We arrived early. (before the usual/expected time; adverb of time)
- They worked hard. (with great effort; adverb of manner)
- The animals have been ill-treated.* (badly; adverb of manner)
- She is pretty tall for her age. (quite; adverb of degree)
- The kids behaved well. (in a good, acceptable way; adverb of manner)
* ill is used as a part of a compound in this example
b) used as adjectives:
- We walked through a deep snow to get to school. (adjective describing snow)
- You are early! I didn't expect you before eight. (adjective following the linking verb be )
- It is hard to see how they can lose. (adjective following a linking verb)
- You look ill. (adjective following a linking verb)
- Such a pretty garden! (adjective describing garden)
- I don't feel very well. (adjective following a linking verb)
As you can see it is quite simple to distinguish between adverbs and adjectives when adjectives are placed before a noun (deep snow vs. deep in his pockets; a pretty garden vs. pretty tall) if we have in mind the functions which these parts of speech normally perform. However, it may be somewhat harder to distinguish between adverbs and adjectives that come after verbs.
To be able to make this distinction more easily you need to learn about the so-called linking verbs (there are about 30 altoghether) as opposed to full verbs. Full verbs are always modified by adverbs, while linking verbs are followed by adjectives or nouns. The most frequent linking verbs are be, become and seem, but there are also appear, feel, get/grow, keep, look, make, smell, sound, taste, turn etc. However, English being fond of complications does not give you a luxury to recognise these linking verbs in a sentence and say, "Aha! The word after it must be an adjective!". Why? Because most of these verbs can act as both full verbs and linking verbs. Fortunately, all you need to know is whether they describe a deliberate action (=full verb) or an involuntary action (=linking verb) and you will know what to expect after it: an adverb or an adjective. Another useful test for linking verbs is the replacement by "be" and if the sentence remains meaningful you have got a linking verb :)
Examples:
1. We arrived early. (always a full verb, adverb of time) vs. You are early. (a linking verb, adjective describing time)
* be can be followed by an obligatory adverbial (e.g. He is here.)
2. He looked angrily at her. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. He looked pale. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)
3. He turned swiftly to face his foe. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. The weather has turned cold. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)
4. He tasted the soup suspiciously. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. The soup tasted horrible. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)
2. Many adverbs have an -ly ending (beautifully, slowly, quickly, magically, swiftly etc.) and some of them can be used as adjectives (kindly, daily, monthly, weekly, leisurely). There are, however, some adjectives with this ending which cannot be used as adverbs too! Such adjectives are: lovely, lonely, lively, friendly, cowardly, silly, ugly, manly and homely.
* Thomson-Martinet's grammar mentions "likely" as such an adjective, although I have found it listed as an adverb too in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
B. Distinguishing between adverbs and nouns/prepositions
So far I have written only about distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives, but you should also note that some words can be used as adverbs and nouns too, or as adverbs and prepositions.
First, I will list a few examples of words which can be used as both adverbs and nouns:
* upstairs:
- The cat belongs to the people who live upstairs. (adverb: Where do they live?)
- We've converted the upstairs into an office. (noun: What have we converted into an office?)
* outdoors:
- The rain prevented them from eating outdoors. (eating where?)
- They both have a love of the outdoors. (a love of what?)
Similarly, a word can be used as both an adverb or a preposition:
* by:
- Just drive by. Don't stop. (by = past; adverb)
- a house by the river (by= next to; preposition which normally comes before a noun, pronoun or a gerund)
* near:
- The exams are drawing near. (adverb)
- Nobody else comes near her in intellect. (preposition)
C. Distinguishing between adverbs and verbs
Finally, there are words which can be used as adverbs and verbs as well. Some of them I have already used in examples, such as "back"and also "near" ( The project is nearing completion.). Since verbs have different inflections (endings denoting time etc) from those of adverbs and adjectives and since their function in a sentence is quite different it is easier to differentiate between them and adverbs (or adjectives and nouns).
Please feel free to suggest corrections if you spot any mistakes and ask for a clarification of anything said in the post.
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