Adverb

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent?. This function is called the adverbial function, and may be realized by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word expressions (adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses). An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent?. This function is called the adverbial function, and may be realized by single words (adverbs) or by multi-word expressions (adverbial phrases and adverbial clauses). Adverbs are traditionally regarded as one of the parts of speech. However, modern linguists note that the term 'adverb' has come to be used as a kind of 'catch-all' category, used to classify words with various different types of syntactic behavior, not necessarily having much in common except that they do not fit into any of the other available categories (noun, adjective, preposition, etc.) The English word adverb derives (through French) from Latin adverbium, from ad- ('to'), verbum ('word', 'verb'), and the nominal suffix -ium. The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs or verb phrases. An adverb used in this way may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Some examples: Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples: They can also modify determiners, prepositional phrases, or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples: Adverbs thus perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major exception is the function of modifier of nouns, which is performed instead by adjectives (compare she sang loudly with her loud singing disturbed me; here the verb sang is modified by the adverb loudly, whereas the noun singing is modified by the adjective loud). However, because some adverbs and adjectives are homonyms, their respective functions are sometimes conflated: The word 'Even' in the first sentence is an adjective, since it is a prepositive modifier that modifies the noun, 'numbers' (compare 'these even numbers ...'). By contrast, the word 'Even' in the second sentence is a prepositive adverb that modifies the clause, 'camels need to drink.' The word 'Even' in the third sentence also is a prepositive adverb that modifies the clause containing the 'a camel' a noun phrase.Although it possible for an adverb to precede or to follow a noun or a noun phrase, the adverb nonetheless does not modify either in such cases, as in: