Adverbs in English
1,870 fill-in-the-gap exercises across 4 forms
Words that say how, how often, when or where. Most are built from an adjective, and each kind has its own position.
Pick a form to practice
Building an adverb from an adjective
Most adverbs of manner add -ly:
- quick → quickly, careful → carefully
- consonant plus -y → -ily: happy → happily, easy → easily
- -le → -ly: gentle → gently, simple → simply
- -ic → -ically: automatic → automatically
The ones that do not
Some words are the same as adjectives:
fast, hard, late, early, straight, high, low, near, daily, weekly
a fast car / she drives fast — no fastly.
good is the exception everyone meets first: its adverb is well.
She is a good singer. → She sings well.
And three pairs mean different things:
- hard (with effort) / hardly (almost not): He works hard. / He hardly works.
- late (not early) / lately (recently)
- near (close) / nearly (almost)
Adjective or adverb
Ask what the word describes:
- describing a noun → adjective: a careful driver
- describing a verb → adverb: he drives carefully
After linking verbs — be, seem, look, sound, feel, taste, smell, become — use the adjective:
The soup tastes good. — not tastes well.
Where each kind goes
- manner: after the verb, or after the object. She read the letter carefully.
- frequency: before the main verb, but after the verb to be. He often forgets. / He is often late.
- time and place: at the end, and place comes before time. We arrived at the station late last night.
Order at the end of a sentence
When several pile up, the sequence is manner — place — time:
She sang beautifully at the concert last night.
All forms
| Kind | Answers | Examples | Usual position |
|---|---|---|---|
| manner | how? | slowly, well, carefully | after the verb or object |
| frequency | how often? | always, often, never | before the main verb |
| time | when? | yesterday, soon, already | usually at the end |
| place | where? | here, outside, upstairs | at the end |
Mistakes to avoid
Wrong: She sings beautiful. correct: She sings beautifully.
The word describes how she sings, so it needs the adverb form.
Wrong: He drives very fastly. correct: He drives very fast.
Fast is already an adverb. There is no such word as fastly.
Wrong: I go always to the gym on Tuesdays. correct: I always go to the gym on Tuesdays.
Adverbs of frequency go before the main verb.