Think of adverbs as modifiers: they modify elements of a sentence (verbs, adjectives, other adverbs). Adverbs answer questions such as "where?", "when?", "how long?", "how much?", or just "how?".
Spanish adverbs are easy to spot, because many of them of them have the ending "-mente", which is similar to the English ending "-ly". Because adverbs don´t modify nouns or pronouns (that is the adjectives job) , you don´t have to worry about gender or number agreement.
Adverbs of manner express the way in which the action of the verb is carried out.
- Él hace las cosas bien. (He does things right.)
- No comas tan despacio. (Don´t eat so slowly.)
- Jaime aprende español fácilmente. (Jaime learns Spanish easily.)
Most adverbs of manner come from adjectives, and they use the suffix "-mente". Remember that only qualifying adjectives can be made into adverbs, and they are formed as follows:
- The feminine form of adjectives + the suffix "-mente".
Adjective: lento (slow); feminine form: lenta; adverb: "lentamente" (slowly).
- Adjectives with a single form (fuerte, débil, alegre) just need to add "-mente" at the end. Note that many of these adjectives end in the letter "e" or a consonant.
Adverbs of manner |
bien |
well |
mal |
badly |
fácilmente |
easily |
lentamente |
slowly |
alegremente |
happily |
ruidosamente |
loudly |
finalmente |
finally |
rápidamente |
quickly |
elegantemente |
elegantly |
religiosamente |
religiously |
Note that the adverbs retain the stress and accent mark from the adjective:
- fácil - fácilmente
- rápido - rápidamente
- débil - débilmente
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