Position of adverbs in English

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Some tips to know the position of adverbs in English.

Frequency adverbs (always, often, never, never, seldom, usually): they are placed before the verb, if the verb has a simple form. If ‘be’ is the main verb and there is no auxiliary, the frequency adverb is put next. Otherwise, we put it first:

He often goes to the swimming pool.
She has never been to France.
We are always at home on tuesday.

Frequency expressions (every day, once a week…) are placed at the end of a sentence or at the very beginning of a sentence:

I go to the cinema once a week.
She speaks english every day.
He calls his mum three times a day.
Once a month, I visit my family.
I visit him twice a week.
He meets her several times a month.

Adverbs of manner

They are placed after the main verb, or before it to put importance on the adverb:

He speaks Spanish very well.
He really likes his car.

Some adverbs are always placed after the verbs: well, badly, fast, hard, late

The team well played. [WRONG]
The team played well. [CORRECT]
He badly plays guitar. [WRONG]
He plays guitar badly. [CORRECT]

⚠️hard and fast are irregular adverbs – we do not say hardly or fastly.

Adverbs of Degree

They immediately place themselves in front of the adjective or adverb they are modifying:

He is too slow.
He has almost finished.
She is very tired.

Be careful, enough is placed after the word it modifies.

She worked hard enough. [We don’t say: She worked enough hard]

Enough is often followed by to + infinitive or followed by for….

She is old enough to be his mother.
Is it hot enough for you?
I’ve studied enough for today.
This house isn’t big enough for us.

Adverbs of time and place (HERE, THERE, YESTERDAY, TODAY…)

They can be placed at the beginning (but it’s rare) or more generally at the end of the sentence:

Here, you can make a lot of friends.
He went to the gym yesterday.

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Easy list of English Grammar Terms

– Easy list of English Grammar Terms –

Feel free to leave a comment if you find any errors or if you have any suggestions to make to improve this lesson.

Here is a list of all the basic grammar terms you should know before starting to learn english. It will be useful for beginners as well as advanced learners. All the grammatical terms are explained with examples.

ADVERB

It’s used to clarify or modify the meaning of a verb, an adjective, another adverb or an entire proposition, for example when, where and how something happens:

We talked about it yesterday.
I’ll wait here.
Read the text carefully.

ADVERB OF FREQUENCY

Adverbs of frequency describes the frequency at which something happens:

I usually eat at home.
These lessons are often very boring.

AUXILIARY VERB

Be, Do and Have are used with other verbs to form passive times and forms. They are auxiliary verbs:

I’m not working tomorrow.
What did she say?
The conference has been canceled.

GERUND

A gerund is a form ending in -ing of a verb used as a noun:

Smoking is not allowed at the back of the bar.
I’m not keen on flying.

INFINITIVE

An infinitive is the basis of a verb (come, go, etc …). It is used with or without ‘to‘:

This book is hard to understand.
I’d like to book a table for eight o’clock.
I must finish my homework today.

MODAL VERB

A modal verb is a verb like might, can or should. It is used to express possibilities, ask permission, give advice, etc.

Can we meet later this afternoon?
We should improve our english.
They might think the house is too old.

PHRASAL VERBS

A phrasal verb is composed in two parts: a verb (for example ‘look‘) followed by an adverb or a preposition (for example ‘after‘). When used together, they often have a completely different meaning:

He’s looking after the children.
She looked the word up in her dictionary.

PREPOSITION

A preposition is used to connect and describe the relationship between a noun and a pronoun. Some common prepositions are: in, on, around, above, between, inside, near, for, with …

He swam across the river.
This movie is about the second World War.

PRONOUN

A pronoun takes the place of a name:

The hotel is good but it’s too far from the airport.
That’s my boss. Have you met him?