Hello everyone. I am Niharika and I'm back with a grammar lesson for you. Yes today we
are gonna look at Adverb placement in a sentence. Now, before we understand, where adverbs are
to be placed in a sentence. We are gonna first understand that, what are adverbs? Well, adverbs
tell us about, How, when or where something is done. So it's very easy to understand what
is the role of an adverb by just looking at the word. So it adds something to the verb,
so it tells us about, how, when or where something is done, so that's adverb for you. For example,
when I say, I often visit my grandmother in Chicago, so here the word visit is the verb,
but how often do I visit my grandmother? Well, the word often is the adverb. So that is telling
me that how often I visit my grandmother?
Now there are ways where we place the adverb in a sentence. In fact there are three positions.
One is the initial position then we have the mid or the middle position and then we have
the end, so that's in a sentence. So here first we are gonna look at the initial position
of the adverb, that it's at the start of a sentence. In the beginning when you use an
adverb, the types of adverbs that you use are connecting adverbs
and another type of adverbs that you end up using at the beginning of the sentence are
the time adverbs. Now let's look at some examples, that would help you to understand this better.
Life is hard, however life can be fun. Now here your adverb is however. You would wonder
is that in the beginning? Well that's connecting adverbs for you, so always remember connecting
adverbs are the words that connect your phrase that has come before, so it connects a phrase
that has come before. So it is used at the beginning of a phrase in order to connect
the phrase that has come before, so life is hard, is your first phrase. Now in order to
connect this phrase, you are using a connecting adverb to complete the meaning of the thing
that you are saying, however life can be fun. So however is used at the beginning of a sentence
in order to connect your first phrase. Now the connecting adverbs that we have in English
are, however then we also have then, next, still, consequently and however. So these are the connecting adverbs
for you that would help you to connect the phrase that is used before. So let's look
at another example here, My friend Mark doesn't enjoy school, still he gets good grades. So
here the word still is your connecting adverb and it's used at the beginning of the sentence
in order to connect your first sentence. Hope you got this right? Now another kind of adverbs
that we use in the beginning of a sentence is the time adverbs, but also remember the
time adverbs are the most flexible ones, they not only come at the beginning of a sentence,
but they also come in the middle and of course they also come in the last, which we will
learn later. So look at the example here, Tomorrow I will visit my mom. So when are
you gonna visit your mom? Tomorrow, so here the word tomorrow is your adverb, it's your
time adverb and you are using it at the beginning of a sentence. Another example is, Sundays
I like playing Football. So when do you like playing football? You like playing football
on Sundays, so Sundays here is used at the beginning and it is a time adverb, so hope
you got this right? But remember in order to place the adverb at the beginning of a
sentence, you can only use connecting adverbs and you can use time adverbs.
Now let's have a look at the mid position of adverbs. Now let's have a look at the middle
position. Middle position is when adverbs come in the middle of a sentence. And what
kind of adverbs come in the middle of a sentence? They are focusing adverbs. Now focusing adverbs
put emphasis on one part of a sentence in order to modify the other part of a sentence.
Now, what kind of adverbs modify or add information to the other part of the sentence? They are
the adverbs of frequency, I'll write it over here, adverbs of frequency. Then we have adverbs
of certainty, so adverbs of frequency, adverbs of certainty and comment adverbs. Which means,
I'll explain that to you. Adverbs of comment,now look at the example over here. She never forgets
to call her sister,so the word never is the adverb that we end up using in the middle
of a sentence and it's adverb of frequency,so never, often, sometimes, usually. These are
all adverbs of frequency that end up coming in the middle of a sentence, so that's how
these adverbs are placed in the middle position. If you look at another example here, I will
certainly buy a copy of this book, so here the word certainly is the adverb of certainty,
so this comes in the middle, it's placed in the middle. Now the adverbs of certainty are
like certainly or probably. So these are certain adverbs that you can end up using in a middle
of a sentence.
And then the third example here, At the conference she intelligently answered all her critics.
So she intelligently, How did she answer? Well, she intelligently answered, so here
the word intelligently is your adverb, that is placed in the middle of a sentence and
it is adverb of comment. Now adverb of comment, it means when you want to talk about a quality,
so for example, She intelligently or she stupidly or she smartly answered all the questions.
So these are all adverbs of comment. And these all kind of adverbs are the focusing adverbs
that end up coming in the middle of a sentence. So that's the middle position for you. Now
let's look at the end position of adverbs.
Now we are gonna look at the end position, which means the adverbs that come at the end
of a sentence. Now what types of adverbs come at the end of a sentence? Well, there are
adverbs of manner, adverbs of place and adverbs of time. So now we look at the examples here,
you will get an idea of what I am saying, John does his homework carefully. Now of course,
we are looking at the end position, so which means the adverb will be placed at the end
of a sentence, so here the word carefully is your adverb and it is an adverb of manner,
which gives us an idea that we are talking about, how something is done. So here John
does his homework carefully, so carefully is the adverb and it's an adverb of manner,
which always comes at the end of a sentence. The next one here, Mark hasn't done this report
accurately, so accurately is again your adverb of manner. It's giving us an idea of how the
report is been done,so that's your adverb at the end of the sentence. The next one,
I am walking in the garden outside. Now again the word outside is your adverb and it is
an adverb of place, so when you talk about an adverb of place, it means you are talking
about where something is done. So here I am walking in the garden outside. Where am I
walking in the garden? Outside, so therefore the word outside is my adverb, which is placed
at the end and it is the adverb of place. The next one, Susan is cleaning downstairs.
So where is she cleaning? She's cleaning downstairs, therefore the word downstairs is your adverb,
which is placed at the end and it is the adverb of place. Now let's look at another example,
Frank likes relaxing at home on weekends. So he likes relaxing at home when? Well, on
the weekends, now remember at the beginning, we learnt that the adverbs of time are the
most flexible adverbs. They can be used in the beginning, they can be placed in the initial
position or in the middle position or at the end position, so here we are talking about
the end position and we are talking about the adverbs of time. So here weekends is your
adverb of time, which is placed at the end of a sentence.
Next one, I have a meeting tomorrow. So when do you have a meeting? Well, you have a meeting
tomorrow, so tomorrow is your adverb of time, which is placed at the end of a sentence.
So always remember, when you have to place an adverb at the end, you end up using these
three types of adverbs, where the adverbs of manner tells us on how something is done,
when it comes to adverbs of place, it tells us, when, I'm sorry where something is done
and when we talk about adverbs of time, then it tells us about when something is done.
And these three adverbs will be always placed at the end of a sentence. So that is the adverb
placement for you in English. Hope this is clear to you? And hope you can understand
when to place the adverb in a sentence. I'll be back with a new lesson soon. Until then
you take care and have a great day.