Adverb positions

1.- Adverbs of comment and manner

Adverbs are frequently used to give more information about verbs. In other words, adverbs often tell us how things happen.

Examples:

They run fast. How do they run? - fast

She paints beautifully. How does she paint? - beautifully

He quickly finished his breakfast. How did he finish? - quickly

Adverbs of comment add information about the speaker’s opinion. They do not usually give information about how something happened. These adverbs modify the complete sentence.

Compare these sentences:

1. She started dancing happily. (adverb of manner)

2. Happily, she started dancing. (comment adverb)

Sentence 1 gives more information about how she was singing.

Sentence 2 gives the speaker’s opinion.

Position of adverbs of manner:

You can place these adverbs in two different ways:

After the main verb.

They run fast.

She paints beautifully.

Before the verb to add emphasis.

He calmly announced that his father had passed away.

He quickly finished his breakfast.

However, some adverbs are always placed after the verb.

These adverbs are: well, badly, hard, fast.

She well sang. - WRONG

She sang well. - RIGHT

2.- Position of adverbs of comment:

Adverbs of comment usually go at the beginning of a sentence or clause. However, they can also be placed after the subject, or at the end of the sentence/clause.

Clearly, Drake didn’t know what he was doing.

Drake didn’t know what he was doing, clearly.

Drake clearly didn’t know what he was doing.

Common adverbs of comment: