5 Types of Adverbs: Degree, Frequency, Manner, Place and Time

Types of Adverbs

As with all adverbs, they tell us more about the verb. There are 5 different types of adverbs.

For example, adverbs can describe when (adverbs of time) or where (adverbs of place) something happens.

Adverbs of manner express how something happens by simply adding -ly (in most cases).

Instead of a list of adverbs with examples, let’s examine the 5 different types of adverbs including adverbs of degree, frequency, manner, place, and time.

1. Adverbs of Degree

For adverbs that answer “how much” or to “what extent”, we use adverbs of degree. For example, they usually modify other verbs, adjectives, or adverbs making them stronger or weaker.

These types of adverbs modify adjectives but not the other way around. In other words, adverbs can combine with other adverbs to put more emphasis on the verb. When you use ‘more’, ‘most’, and ‘least’, they can show degree when describing a verb.

ADVERBS OF DEGREE EXAMPLES:

• He’s very good at playing the piano.
• She’s almost always late arriving at school.
• It’s pretty interesting to see the history of China.
• The English test was extremely difficult.
• When he wears his running shoes, he moves more quickly among everyone.

2. Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of frequency express “how often” something takes place. In other words, it explains the intensity of occurrence that an event happens. Adverbs of frequency are usually in this form: Subject + Adverb + Verb

Adverb of Frequency	How Often
Never	0%
Hardly Ever	10%
Rarely	20%
Seldom	30%
Occasionally	40%
Sometimes	50%
Often	60%
Frequently	70%
Usually	90%
Always	100%

In addition, adverbs like “daily”, “weekly”, “monthly” and “yearly” describe frequency. But these adverbs of frequency answer “how often” in a more specific way.

ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY EXAMPLES:

• I usually go to the gym on weekends.
• She always wakes up at 7:00 am.
• The family rarely eats brown rice for dinner.
• I never take sick days.

3. Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of manner express how something happens. In most cases for adverbs of manner, you can take an adjective and simply add -ly to form an adverb. For example, if you take the sentence – “The cat is quick (adjective).”

Instead of describing a noun, an adverb describes or modifies a verb. In this case, the noun is the word ‘cat’. Because adverbs describe verbs, you need to add a verb in the sentence. For example, you can use the verb “to run” in this form – “The cat runs quickly.”

Adverbs of manner tell us the way or how to do something. However, not all adverbs end with “-ly”. For example, the words ‘fast’ and ‘well’ describe verbs but do not end in “-ly”.

ADVERBS OF MANNER EXAMPLES:

• The cat runs quickly.
• She plays the violin terribly.
• The horse moved fast.
• She plays the piano well.

4. Adverbs of Place

Adverbs of Place describe “where” an action takes place. In addition, we usually find adverbs of place after the main verb.

For example, “indoors”, “next week” and “still” all describe where something happens. Again, we often find these adverbs of place after a verb in a sentence.

ADVERBS OF PLACE EXAMPLES:

• If you want to see the hot air balloon, you will have to go outside.
• When she entered the classroom, she sat down.
• I searched everywhere but I couldn’t find him.
• He walks downstairs to meet his father.

5. Adverbs of Time

As with all adverbs, they tell us more about the verb. For adverbs of time, they tell us when the verb happened or will happen. For example, “afterward”, “every day” and “recently’ are adverbs of time and describe “when”.

On the other hand, adverbs of time can describe the duration of an event that occurs. Also, it can show when an action is complete.

ADVERBS OF TIME EXAMPLES:

• We’ll go to the festival tomorrow.
• Yesterday, we played in the basketball tournament.
• She’ll eventually finish studying and go to university.
• They ate popcorn and watched movies all day.

The 5 Types of Adverbs

As with all adverbs, they tell us more about the verb. For adverbs of time, place, manner, frequency, and degree, we’ve provided examples that we use in everyday English.

All things considered, adverbs are common parts of speech and sentence structure.

Despite the subtle differences between these 5 types of adverbs, let’s hear some adverb examples that you know of.

And if you want to teach adverb types, check out our free adverb worksheets that you can use in your classroom today.