English Grammar Complete Guide – Adverb

What is an Adverb?

An Adverb is a word used to modify any part of Speech (except a Noun or Pronoun) or a whole sentence.
[Adverb হল এমন Word যা বাক্যে Noun বা Pronoun ছাড়া যে-কোনাে Part of Speech-কে অথবা একটি গােটা বাক্যকে modify বা বিশেষিত করতে পারে। মনে রাখা দরকার, Interjection (Hurrah! Hallo! ইত্যাদি) বাক্য থেকে আলাদা হয়ে বসে বলে একে এখন তার Part of Speech ধরা হয় না।]

Examples:
1. The fox runs quickly. (quickly modifies runs, a verb)
2. Lila is a very beautiful girl. (very modifies beautiful, an adjective)
3. She sings extremely well. (extremely modifies well, an adverb)
4. The bird flew exactly over our heads. (exactly modifies over, a preposition)
5. I dislike him simply because he is a liar. (simply modifies because, a conjunction)
6. He has hardly any friends. (hardly modifies any, a determiner)
7. The machine is completely out of order. (completely modifies out of order, a phrase)
8. Unfortunately, he could not continue his studies. (unfortunately modifies the whole sentence)

KINDS OF ADVERB

Adverbs are divided into three main categories –
(A) Simple Adverb
(B) Relative Adverb
(C) Interrogative Adverb

SIMPLE ADVERBS

Simple Adverbs are of eight kinds (Simple Adverb আট প্রকার):
1. Adverb of Time
2. Adverb of Place
3. Adverb of Manner
4. Adverb of Degree
5. Adverb of Reason or Purpose
6. Adverb of Affirmation and Negation
7. Intensifiers 
8. Downtoners

Time : 

When? ( He came here yesterday.)
How long? (Dhiraj frequently goes to Delhi.)
How often? (I have told you twice.)

(কখন, কতক্ষণ বা কতবার কোনাে কাজ সম্পন্ন হয় তা বােঝাতে Adverb of Time ব্যবহার করা হয়। এধরণের Adverb -গুলি হল–Now, then, before, since, ago, already, always, seldom, often, once, twice, thrice, again, soon, late, afterward, yesterday, today, tomorrow, daily, early, formerly, frequently, presently, immediately, instantly ইত্যাদি)

Place :

Where? (Stand here. / Go there. / Come in.)
Wherefrom? (This news has been collected locally.)

(কাজটি কোথায় হচ্ছে বা কোথা থেকে হচ্ছে বোঝাতে Adverb of Place ব্যবহার করা হয়। Adverb-গুলি হল — Here, there, hither, thither, hence, thence, far, near, nearby, away, ahead, overhead, inland, locally, universally ইত্যাদি। এছাড়া in, out, up, above, below, inside, outside, within, without প্রভৃতি Preposition-গুলি Adverb হয়ে বসতে পারে—He went up the hill.)

Manner :

How? (Bhola reads clearly.) 
In what manner? (The boy has been badly treated.)

(কীভাবে কোনাে কাজ সম্পন্ন হয় তা বােঝাতে Adverb of Manner ব্যবহার হয়। এ ধরনের Adverb গুলি হল– Clearly, closely, correctly, bravely, badly, sadly, softly, steadily, soundly, swiftly, simply, suddenly, carefully, carelessly, easily, quickly, probably, luckily, fortunately, unfortunately, naturally, rightly, urgently, wrongly, slowly, possibly, widely, thus, well – ইত্যাদি।)

4. Degree :

How much? (She is quite happy.)
To what extent? (I am rather busy.)

(কোনাে কাজ কতটা বা কী পরিমাণ সম্পন্ন হয় তা বােঝাতে Adverb of Degree ব্যবহার হয়। এ ধরনের Adverb গুলি হল– Almost, quite, very, much, fully, partly, wholly, completely, strongly, totally, entirely, deeply, greatly, poorly, half, enough, somewhat, altogether, too, little, a little, rather ইত্যাদি।)

5. Reason or Purpose :

Reason (He is ill so he cannot go to school.)
Purpose (He works hard so that he can succeed.)

 (কোনো কাজের কারণ বা উদ্দেশ্য বোঝাতে Adverb of Reason or Purpose ব্যবহার হয়। এ ধরনের Adverb গুলি হল —Hence, therefore, so, so that ইত্যাদি।)

6. Affirmation and Negation :

Affirmation (Yes, I know him.)
Negation (I have never heard it.)

(হ্যাঁ-বাচক বা না-বাচক শব্দ Adverb রূপে ব্যবহৃত হতে পারে। এ ধরনের Adverb-গুলি হল — yes, not, never ইত্যাদি। তবে ‘no’ Adverb নয়, Adjective – He has no enemy.)

7. Intensifies :

(He would certainly go there.)
(Surely it is a pickpocket.)

(যে Adverb-গুলি Verb-এর কাজের উপর বিশেষভাবে জোর দেয়, সেগুলিকে Intensifier বলে। যেমন – actually, certainly, surely, definitely, really, absolutely, thoroughly, utterly, very much, indeed ইত্যাদি।)

8. Downtoner :

(I can hardly see it.)
(This soup is rather hot.)

(যে Adverb-গুলি Verb, Adjective বা অন্য কোনাে Adverb-এর গুরুত্ব কমিয়ে দেয়, সেগুলিকে downtoner বলে। যেমন – hardly, barely, scarcely, nearly, rather ইত্যাদি।)

RELATIVE ADVERB & CONJUNCTIVE ADVERB

The Relative Adverb joins two sentences together and shows its relation to its antecedent expressed or understood. (Relative Adverb দুটি বাক্যকে যুক্ত করে এবং তার উক্ত বা অনুক্ত Antecedent বা পূর্ববর্তী word-এর সঙ্গে সম্পর্ক বুঝিয়ে দেয়।
* Relative Adverb-এর Antecedent না থাকলে তাকে Conjunctive Adverb বলে।
A Relative Adverb makes a Relative Clause. But a Conjunctive Adverb makes an Adverbial Clause or a Noun Clause. (একটি Relative Adverb-এর দ্বারা Relative Clause হয়। কিন্তু একটি Conjunctive Adverb দ্বারা একটি Adverbial Clause বা একটি Noun Clause হয়।)

Examples:

Antecedent expressed :

Show me the house where he was born. (Antecedent ‘house’) [Relative Clause with Relative Adverb]
Do you know the time when the Rajdhani Mail arrives? (Antecedent ‘time’) [Relative Clause with Relative Adverb]

Antecedent omitted :

You may go where you like. (Antecedent the ‘place’ omitted) [Adverbial Clause with Conjunctive Adverb ‘where’]
We do not know how it is done. (Antecedent the ‘process’ omitted) [Noun Clause with Conjunctive Adverb ‘how’]

** A Relative Adverb, like a Relative Pronoun relates or refers back to its Antecedent. (Relative Adverb-গুলি Relative Pronoun-এর মতাে তার পূর্ববর্তী Antecedent-এর সঙ্গে সম্পর্কযুক্ত হয়। এ ধরনের Relative Adverb-গুলি হল where, when, why এবং how; এগুলি বাক্যের মাঝে বসে, কখনােই বাক্যের গােড়ায় বসে না।)

INTERROGATIVE ADVERB [For Wh-Questions]

When Adverbs are used in asking questions, they are called Interrogative Adverbs. [প্রশ্ন জিজ্ঞাসা করতে যে সমস্ত Adverb ব্যবহার হয়, সেগুলিকে Interrogative Adverb বলে।]

Examples:
Interrogative Adverb of Place: Where is Rahman?
Interrogative Adverb of Time: When did he come?
Interrogative Adverb of Reason: Why are you late?
Interrogative Adverb of Manner: How did he do this?
Interrogative Adverb of Number: How many boys are there?
Interrogative Adverb of Quantity: How much milk would you take?
Interrogative Adverb of Frequency: How often are the pups born?
Interrogative Adverb of Degree: How far was the report true?

(মনে রাখবে, who, whose, whom, which এবং what এগুলি Interrogative Pronoun আর where, when, why, how, how many, how much, how often, how far, how long, how high ইত্যাদি Interrogative Adverb.)

FORMATION OF ADVERBS

(i) Most of the Adverbs are formed by adding ‘ly’ to an Adjective : (Adjective এর সঙ্গে -ly যােগ করে বেশির ভাগ Adverb গঠিত হয়।

Adjectives	+ ly	Adverbs
bad	ly	badly
sad	ly	sadly
brave	ly	bravely
hard	ly	hardly
honest	ly	honestly
kind	ly	kindly
cruel	ly	cruelly
clever	ly	cleverly
certain	ly	certainly
clear	ly	clearly
correct	ly	correctly
quick	ly	quickly
quiet	ly	quietly
loud	ly	loudly
local	ly	locally
great	ly	greatly
soft	ly	softly
deep	ly	deeply
right	ly	rightly
partial	ly	partially
urgent	ly	urgently
poor	ly	poorly
proud	ly	proudly
strong	ly	strongly
sound	ly	soundly
slow	ly	slowly
sudden	ly	suddenly
sure	ly	surely
real	ly	really
instant	ly	instantly
private	ly	privately
present	ly	presently
former	ly	formerly
frequent	ly	frequently
fortunate	ly	fortunately
wrong	ly	wrongly
wide	ly	widely
total	ly	totally
definite	ly	definitely
actual	ly	actually
absolute	ly	absolutely
thorough	ly	thoroughly
utter	ly	utterly
careful	ly	carefully
cheerful	ly	cheerfully
hopeful	ly	hopefully
beautiful	ly	beautifully
meaningful	ly	meaningfully
careless	ly	carelessly
hopeless	ly	hopelessly

ii) Adjectives ending in ‘le’: ‘e’ is dropped and ‘y’ is added. (Adjective-এর শেষে ‘le’ থাকলে ‘e’ বাদ যায় এবং ‘y’ যোগ হয়।)

Adjectives	+ ly	Adverbs
single	ly	singly
double	ly	doubly
suitable	ly	suitably
horrible	ly	horribly
terrible	ly	terribly
possible	ly	possibly
probable	ly	probably
whole	ly	wholly

(iii) A few Adjectives ending in ‘Il’: only ‘y’ is added. (Adjective এর শেষে ‘ll’ থাকলে শুধু ‘y’ যােগ হয়।)

Adjectives	+ ly	Adverbs
full	ly	fully
dull	ly	dully

(iv) A few Adjectives ending in ‘e’ : ‘e’ is dropped and ‘ly’ is added. (Adjective এর শেষে, ‘e’ থাকলে ‘e’ বাদ যায় এবং ‘ly’ যােগ হয়।)

Adjectives	+ ly	Adverbs
true	ly	truly
due	ly	duly
undue	ly	unduly

(v) Adjectives ending in ‘y’ change into ‘i’ and then ‘ly’ is added. (Adjective এর শেষে ‘y’ থাকলে ‘i’ -তে পরিবর্তিত হয় এবং তারপর ‘ly’ যােগ হয়।)

Adjectives	+ ly	Adverbs
easy	ly	easily
lazy	ly	lazily
heavy	ly	heavily
happy	ly	happily
noisy	ly	noisily
lucky	ly	luckily
ready	ly	readily
satisfactory	ly	satisfactorily

(vi) Adjectives ending in ‘ic’: ‘ally’ is added. (Adjective – এর শেষে ‘ic’ থাকলে ‘ally’ যােগ হয়।)

Adjectives	+ ly	Adverbs
automatic	ly	automatically
economic	ly	economically
tragic	ly	tragically

(vii) Some Adjectives take new words as Adverbs.

কিছু Adjective থেকে নতুন Adverb হয়। যেমন – Good – Well (He played well.) Bad – Worse (The situation is getting worse.)

(viii) There is a class of Adverbs which are derived from the Pronouns: He, who, that. (Pronouns he, who, that থেকে কতকগুলি Adverb তৈরী হয়।)

Pronoun	Adverbs
He That Who	Place Motion to Motion from Time Manner here hither hence     there thither thence then thus where whither whence when how

(ix) Many of the above Adverbs are compounded with Prepositions. (উপরের Adverb-গুলি আবার Preposition-এর সঙ্গে যুক্ত হয়ে কিছু নূতন Adverb তৈরি করে।)

Here > Hereby, herefrom, herein, hereupon, herewith, hereafter. Hither > hitherto. Hence > henceforth, henceforward.

Herewith find a cheque of one thousand rupee.

I won’t allow it henceforth.

There > Thereby, therefrom, therein, thereof, thereon, therewith, thereafter. Thence > thenceforth, thenceforward.

Where > Wherein, whereon, whereof, wherefrom.

(x) Some Adverbs are made up of a qualifying Adjective and a Noun. (একটি qualifying Adjective এবং একটি Noun যােগ করে কতকগুলি Adverb হয়।) যেমন – sometimes, meantime, meanwhile, yesterday, midday, midnight, midway.

(xi) Some Adverbs are a combination of a Preposition and a Noun. (একটি Preposition এবং একটি Noun যুক্ত হয়ে কতকগুলি Adverb হয়।) যেমন – away, along, ahead, abroad, aloud, asleep, (away = on way) behind, below, besides, today,

tomorrow, overhead, overboard.

(xii) Two Adverbs sometimes go together, joined by the Conjunction ‘and’ . (কখনো কখনাে দুটি Adverb ‘and’ দ্বারা যুক্ত হয়ে একসঙ্গে বসে। যেমন –

again and again (I warned him again and again.)

far and near (His fame has spread far and near.)

far and wide (As a statesman he saw far and wide.)

far and away (This is far and away the best course.)

now and then (Now and then he writes to me.)

once and again (You must not read such trash once and again.)

through and through (He has read Milton through and through.)

thus and thus (Thus and thus only we shall succeed.)

Adjectives and Adverbs in the same form :

Some words are used sometimes as Adjectives and sometimes as Adverbs. The manner in which they are used identifies them. (কিছু কিছু শব্দ Adjective এবং Adverb দুভাবেই ব্যবহৃত হতে পারে।)

Words	Adjective	Adverb
early	He is an early riser.	He started early.
fast	He is a fast runner.	He runs fast.
hard	It is hard work.	He works hard all day.
loud	He speaks in a loud voice.	Don’t sing so loud.
enough	I have enough food.	She sings well enough.
best	He is the best boy in the class.	Try your best.
well	I am well now.	He has done well.

Adverb with two forms:

close closely	clear clearly	deep deeply	dear dearly	easy easily	fine finely	direct directly
hard hardly	high highly	late lately	loud loudly	near nearly	pretty prettily	tight tightly

Usage: I want to deal with him direct. He came to me directly for help.

I closed the door tight. She closed her lips tightly.

Biren speaks very loud. He sings very loudly.

Time runs easy. Time runs easily.

Two forms with different meanings:

He works hard. (কঠিন পরিশ্রম করে) I have hardly any money. (প্রায় না)

He arrived late. (দেরি করে) I have not seen him lately. (সম্প্রতি)

Stand near. (নিকটে) Lila and Bela are nearly related. (ঘনিষ্ঠভাবে)

POSITION OF ADVERBS

(i) Adverbs of Manner; Place and Time are placed after the intransitive verb or after the object of a transitive verb.(Adverb of Manner, Adverb of Place এবং Adverb of Time প্রায়ই Verb-এর পরে বসে; আর যদি object থাকে, তবে object-এর পরে বসে।)

It is raining heavily. (Adverb of manner)
He will come here. (Adverb of place)
I met him yesterday. (Adverb of time)

(ii) But Adverbs of frequency that answer the question ‘How often?’ are normally put before the verb or between the helping verb and the main verb if there is any helping verb. ( কিন্তু Adverb of frequency সাধারণত Verb-এর পূর্বে বসে। আর Helping verb এবং Main verb থাকলে Helping verb এবং Main verb-এর মাঝে বসে।)এরূপ Adverb গুলি হল—always, often, never, seldom, rarely, usually, generally, sometimes, frequently ইত্যাদি।

He always speaks the truth.
We usually have breakfast at eight in the morning.
She has never seen a tiger.
I have often told him to read clearly.

But the following adverbs are always placed after the ‘be’ verb (i.e. is/am/ are/ was/ were). (কিন্তু নীচের Adverb-গুলি সর্বদাই ‘be’ verb-এর পরে বসে।)

He is always busy. He is usually busy.
She is never late for school. She is often late for her school.

**Note: An Adverb is usually placed between a Helping Verb and a Main Verb (সাধারণত Helping Verb এবং Main Verb-এর মাঝে Adverb বসে।)

I shall certainly miss her. He is still waiting for me.

(iii) When an Adverb modifies an Adjective or another Adverb, the Adverb usually comes before it. (Adverb কোনো Adjective বা অন্য কোনো  Adverb কে modify করলে ঐ Adjective বা Adverb-এর পূর্বে বসে।)

The book is very interesting.
The dog is quite dead.
Dhiren is a rather lazy boy.
Do not walk so fast.

But the Adverb ‘enough’ is always placed after the word it modifies. (কিন্তু ‘enough’ যাকে modify করে তার পরে বসে।)

You would be kind enough to grant me leave.

(iv) An Adverb may be placed at the beginning of a sentence for modifying a whole sentence, for emphasising and for asking questions. (সম্পূর্ণ বাক্যকে বিশেষিত করার জন্য, জোরের সঙ্গে কিছু বলার জন্য অথবা প্রশ্ন জিজ্ঞাসার জন্য Adverb বাক্যের প্রথমে বসতে পারে।)

Fortunately, he was saved.
Down went the Titanic.
Where has he gone?

(v) When there are two or more Adverbs after a Verb, the normal order is : Manner, Place and Time [ MPT ] (যখন দুই বা ততােধিক Adverb একটি Verb-এর পরে বসে, তখন সেগুলি সাজাবার সাধারণ নিয়ম হল আগে Manner, পরে Place এবং সবশেষে Time–MPT)

Runa sang / sweetly (M) / in the town hall (P) / last evening. (T)
He worked / hard (M) / yesterday. (T)
I shall go / there (P) / early. (T)

COMPARISON OF ADVERBS

Some Adverbs have three forms—Positive, Comparative & Superlative. (Adjective-এর মতাে কিছু Adverb-এরও Positive, Comparative এবং Superlative এই তিনটি form-এ তুলনা হয়।)

1. কিছু Adverb-এর পর -er যােগে Comparative এবং – est যােগে Superlative হয়।

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Fast	faster	fastest
Late	later	latest, last
Soon	sooner	soonest
Quick	quicker	quickest

2. যে সব Adverb-এর শেষে -ly থাকে তার পূর্বে more বসিয়ে Comparative এবং most বসিয়ে Superlative করা হয়।

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Clearly	more clearly	most clearly
Loudly	more loudly	most loudly
Quickly	more quickly	most quickly
Rapidly	more rapidly	most rapidly
Easily	more easily	most easily
Swiftly	more swiftly	most swiftly
Wisely	more wisely	most wisely
Beautifully	more beautifully	most beautifully
Skillfully	more skillfully	most skillfully
Early (Exception)	earlier	earliest

3. কতকগুলি Adverb-এর Comparison কোনাে বাঁধাধরা নিয়মে হয় না।

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Well (ভালােভাবে)	better	best
Badly (খারাপভাবে)	worse	worst
Far (দূরে, আরও)	farther, further	farthest, furthest
Much (প্রচুর)	more	most
Little (অল্প)	less	least

Exercise

1. Underline the adverb in each of the following sentences.

i) They spoke loudly.
ii) Speak gently to the poor.
iii) I am highly impressed with her presentation.
iv) Earlier, they used to travel in their car.
v) She acted somewhat foolishly.
vi) The birds were chirping merrily.
vii) She looked quite nervous.
viii) We looked for her everywhere.
ix) Radha works diligently in order to get promoted.
x) I sometimes go for a walk in the park.

2. Make sentences of your own using the following adverbs.

i) Happily
ii) Surely
iii) Nicely
iv) Often
v) Secretly
vi) Quickly
vii) Definitely
viii) Seriously
ix) Well
x) Probably
xi) Completely
xii) Perhaps
xiii) Always

3. Find the adjective in the first sentence and fill the gap with the adverb.

(i) James is careful. He drives
(ii) The boy is loud. He shouts
(iii) Her English is perfect. She speaks English
(iv) Our mum was angry. She spoke to us
(v) My neighbor is a loudspeaker. He speaks
(vi) The painter is awful. He paints
(vii) Jane is a nice guitar player, He plays the guitar
(viii) The girl is very quiet. She often sneaks out of the house
(ix) She is a quiet girl. She does her job
(x) The exercise is simple. You have to put one word in each space
(xi) This exercise is easy. You can do it
(xii) Jim is a wonderful piano player. He plays the piano
(xiii) He is a good painter. He paints
(xiv) Joanne is happy. She smiles happily.
(xv) My neighbour is a careless driver. He drives

4. Choose the Adverbs that complete the sentences.

i) She worked very……………….. (hardly/hard).
ii) I am sorry to hear that Souvik spoke to you like that. He ……………………………. (normally/rarely) doesn’t talk that way.
iii) The conference began…………. (lately/late).
iv) Speak ……………………………. (slowly/slow) so that the other person can understand you.
v) My cold is…………. (very/much) better today.
vi) Anna can ……………………………. (often/rarely) be found in the library.
vii) The film is…………………(nearly/near) over.
viii) Ritika reached the cinema………. (first/firstly).
ix) Priya has not come to school. She is ……………………………. (probably/lately) ill.
x) Her attitude was………….. (extreme/extremely) rude.

5. Fill in the blanks with the correct degree of adverbs given in the brackets.

i) I speak English ________ (fluent) now than I did last year.
ii) That building stands _____________ (tall) than any other building in the city.
iii) Rehman writes _______ (well) of all in the class.
iv) I reached ______________ (early) than usual.
v) Of all the players in the team, Jay played ________ (skillful).
vi) The man ate his lunch _______________ (hungrily) as he had missed breakfast.
vii) Our team played _______ (bad) of all.
viii) She walked _______ (far) today than she did yesterday.
ix) My friend has moved _______ (near) to my house now.
x) They are running as _____________ (fast) as our school team.
xi) The new teacher talks _______ (gentle) to all her students.
xii) Could you please write ________________ (clearly)?
xiii) Airplanes can fly _____________ (high) than birds.