10. Irregular adverbs

Common irregular adverbs

Notice that adjectives describe nouns and often adverbs describe verbs (although they do a lot more besides). Like this:

Notice grammar

In these sentences, does the adjective come before the noun or after the noun?

Click to show the answer. The adjective comes BEFORE the noun in these sentences.

In these sentences, does the adverb come before the verb or after the verb?

Click to show the answer. The adverb comes AFTER the verb in these sentences.

Not all adverbs end in -ly. Some common adverbs (like fast, well, late) don't. There are several common exceptions.

• fast is both an adjective and an adverb.
  • She is a fast runner. She runs fast.
• hard is both an adjective and an adverb.
  • He is a hard worker. He works hard.
  • ‘hardly’ means ‘almost not’. He hardly works. (This means he doesn’t work hard.)
• The adverb for ‘good’ is ‘well’. goodly is not a word.
  • She is a good singer. She sings well.
• late/early are both adjectives and adverbs.
  • She is always late for work. She came late yesterday, too.
  • She is always early for work. She came early yesterday, too.
  • ‘lately’ means ‘recently; in the recent past’ I haven't seen her lately. (This means I haven’t seen her recently.)