Adverbs for kids: adverbs of time, place and manner

What is an adverb?

An adverb adds detail to a verb. It tells you how, when, where or how often something happens. In "The owl hooted softly," softly tells you how the owl hooted. In "We leave tomorrow," tomorrow tells you when.

Adverbs can also describe adjectives and other adverbs. In "The water was very cold," very tells you how cold. In "She spoke quite quietly," quite tells you how quietly. Words like very, really, quite and too show degree: how much.

Adverbs of time, place and manner

• Manner (how): carefully, quickly, loudly, well, fast. "He closed the door gently."
• Time (when): now, later, yesterday, soon, already. "We will eat later."
• Place (where): here, there, outside, upstairs, everywhere. "The kids played outside."
• Frequency (how often): always, usually, often, sometimes, never. "I sometimes walk to school."
• Degree (how much): very, too, almost, quite, extremely. "The soup is too hot."

The question test is the quickest way to sort them. Ask the verb a question: how did it happen, when, where, how often? The word that answers is the adverb, and the question you asked tells you its type.

Do all adverbs end in -ly?

Many do, because adding -ly turns an adjective into an adverb: quick, quickly; careful, carefully. The usual spelling rules apply. A y after a consonant changes to i (happy, happily), -le changes to -ly (gentle, gently; simple, simply), and most words ending in -ic add -ally (basic, basically).

Plenty of adverbs don't end in -ly, though: fast, hard, well, soon, often, never, here, there. And some -ly words are adjectives: friendly, lovely, lonely, ugly. In "a friendly dog," friendly describes the dog, so it is an adjective. Always check what job the word is doing.

Adjective or adverb?

Adjectives describe nouns; adverbs describe verbs. "The tortoise is slow" uses an adjective, because slow describes the tortoise. "The tortoise walked slowly" uses an adverb, because slowly describes how it walked.

Two cases cause the most trouble. Good is an adjective and well is its adverb: "She is a good singer" but "She sings well." And after linking verbs like feel, smell, taste and look, use an adjective, because the word describes the subject: "The bread smells delicious," not "deliciously".

Adverbs examples at different levels

• Grade 2: "The baby slept peacefully." Peacefully tells how.
• Grade 3: "We will visit Grandma soon." Soon tells when.
• Grade 3: "Please leave your boots here." Here tells where.
• Grade 4: "Our neighbor never forgets a birthday." Never tells how often.
• Grade 5: "The last question was surprisingly easy." Surprisingly describes the adjective easy.

How adverbs are taught in school

In the US, Common Core asks grade 2 children to use adjectives and adverbs and choose between them depending on what is being described (L.2.1e). Grade 3 children explain what adverbs do in general and in particular sentences (L.3.1a) and form comparative and superlative adverbs, such as faster and more carefully (L.3.1g). Grade 4 adds the relative adverbs where, when and why (L.4.1a).

In England, "adverb" joins the grammar terms in Year 2, when pupils learn to add -ly to turn adjectives into adverbs. Year 3 uses adverbs such as then, next and soon to show time and cause. Year 4 introduces fronted adverbials, which are words or phrases at the start of a sentence followed by a comma: "Later that night, the wind picked up." Year 5 uses adverbs like perhaps and surely to show how likely something is. Adverbs and adverbials are tested on the KS2 grammar, punctuation and spelling test at the end of Year 6.

Adverbs practice at home

• Play "in the manner of the word": one person picks an adverb such as sleepily or angrily, and everyone else does an everyday action that way until someone guesses it.
• While reading together, ask the verb questions: how did the giant walk, when did they leave, where did the cat hide?
• Take one plain sentence such as "The dog ran" and add a how, a when and a where.
• Try the practice set below. It asks your child to find the adverb in a sentence, say whether it tells how, when or where, turn adjectives into adverbs and choose between an adjective and an adverb. Then print a fresh adverbs worksheet with an answer key.