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Today, you'll learn the 16 most common adverbs in English. Adding these adverbs to your speech will help you sound more fluent and advanced in English. You'll learn adverbs of degree, manner, time, and probability. Welcome back to JForrest English. Of course, I'm Jennifer. Now let's get started. First, let's review adverbs of degree. These are used to show how much or to what extent something is true.
Completely, completely. This is the same as totally or 100%. You can say the report is completely finished now, so the film is completely finished. As we're going through this lesson, I want you to notice the placement of the adverb because adverbs are flexible in English grammar. In this case, you want the adverb before the adjective. Now the adjective here also functions as the past participle because the expression is to be finished. The verb is B, and then finished describes the state, so it functions as an adjective. You could say I come completely understand your concern.
Adding completely may help the other person feel better because you 100% understand their concern. So notice here it's before the main verb understand. So subject plus adverb plus main verb. Or maybe you're thinking Jennifer, this lesson is completely amazing. I know you're just getting started with the lesson, but hopefully you're thinking that notice here. Amazing. What is that an adjective? So the placement is before the adjective. And what do you think? Is this lesson completely amazing if it is, But yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes in the comments below. And you can also get the free lesson PDF
so you don't have to take any notes. Our next adverb, slightly, slightly. This is a little or by a small amount, So you might say the meeting started slightly late. That might make someone feel better because it wasn't completely late. It was slightly late. I'm afraid we're starting late. This is before the adjective late or to try to reduce something. You might say this option is slightly more expensive. Notice how different that sounds. Adding the adverb compared to this option is more expensive, only slightly more expensive. The placement here is before a comparative adjective, more expensive. I could ask you, could you speak slightly slower?
So the placement is before a comparative adverb. Let's review these. She speaks slowly. Slowly is the adverb. She speaks slower than her friend. This is a comparative adverb because it still describes the verb. She speaks slightly slower than her friend. This is adverb plus comparative adverb. Remember that adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Barely. This is the same as moderately. It's more than a little more than slightly, but not very not completely. The instructions were fairly clear. So here is before the adjective and after the linking verb be. Am I being fairly clear? She explained the process fairly clearly.
Maybe not 100%, but not 10% either. This is before the adverb. I am fairly certain we can finish this today. That makes someone feel more confident. Not totally confident, but more confident. And here is before the adjective, after the linking verb be. Let's review nearly. This is almost, but not completely. We spent nearly three hours in that meeting. So here this is before a #3 hours, so it's not more than it's a little less.
Nearly three hours is 2 1/2 or even more. Nearly 3/4 of $1,000,000. You can tell a client the project is nearly finished, so they understand it will be finished soon. Or you say it's nearly impossible to find parking downtown at lunch. This is before the adjective. But notice the adjective is impossible. Nearly impossible means close to impossible. So it's a about 95% impossible, but 5% possible. Don't give up yet. Let's move on to adverbs of manner. These are used to describe how something happens or how someone does something carefully, carefully. Of course, this is with attention and caution. You can put this at the beginning of the sentence
and say carefully take the pot off the stove. Or you can put this at the end of the sentence and say take the pot off the stove carefully. No, I think I've fought for everything quite carefully. You can say please carefully read the contract before signing it. This is before the main verb read. Now you can say please read the contract carefully before signing it. Notice the placement here is after the object, the object of the verb read. Read what? Read the contract. Read the contract carefully. Let's review properly.
Properly, This means correctly in the right way. You can use this in the negative. The consultant didn't install the software properly. This is at the end of the sentence, and this is the most common placement. You could say the consultant didn't properly install the software. That is possible. That's before the main verb. Now, if you're giving an instruction to someone in the imperative, you could put the adverb at the beginning of the sentence and say properly install the software this time.
But that would only be at the beginning of the sentence with an instruction, the imperative. Let's review smoothly, smoothly without problems, delays, or interruptions. This is positive. The presentation went smoothly because it helps things run more smoothly. This is after the main verb. The verb here is to go conjugate it. Everything is running smoothly so far. Again, after the main verb run in the present continuous, the transition to the new system happened smoothly after the main verb happened in the past.
Simple. So notice this is a fixed expression to go run or happen smoothly. Let's review gradually. This means slowly, overtime, little by little. You may say my English has gradually improved. This is before the main verb improve. It's conjugated in the present perfect. You could put this at the beginning of the sentence and say gradually my English is improving. It's taking place now gradually. The house just came empty. Or you can put this at the end of the sentence and say my English is improving gradually. Let's review adverbs of time.
These are used to describe when something happens recently, recently, not long ago. I recently started a new job. So notice this is before the main verb, and the main verb is in the past. Simple, you could say. Recently I've been trying to improve my sleep schedule. This is at the beginning of the sentence and notice it's the present perfect continuous because recently it means that action started in the past and continues until now. Recently I've been on a bit of a personal journey. Or you could say we've updated the training materials recently. So you can put this at the end of the sentence and notice you can also use the present perfect to discuss an action that started
in the past and continues until now. But no that it is not commonly used with the present Simple. I hear students say I go to the gym recently, but that's incorrect because the action started in the past and continues until now. So you need to say I've been going to the gym recently. Let's review previously, previously. Of course this is before now or earlier. You could say this feature was previously unavailable. So notice your verb is in the past because previously is in the past and the placement is before the adjective unavailable. This is very commonly used in job
interviews or to discuss our experiences. I previously worked in customer support. This is worse than we previously imagined. So this is before the main verb work. You can start the sentence and say previously I worked in customer support. Or you can end the sentence and say I worked in customer support previously. Let's review temporarily. This is for a limited time, not permanently. The office is temporarily closed for renovations. Before the adjective, we've temporarily moved the weekly meeting to Monday.
This is before the main verb move, and I know the weekly meeting will not always be on Monday, just temporarily. Maybe 3 weeks, maybe 3 months. It's unknown, but not permanent. You could also say we've moved the weekly meeting to Monday temporarily and put the adverb at the end of the sentence. Let's review finally, finally. This is after a long time or a delay. Finally, I understand how to use the present perfect.
We usually add it at the beginning of the sentence to add emphasis and to let the person know we're very excited finally got through to the store. You could also say I understand how to use the present perfect finally at the end of the sentence, but it doesn't sound as dramatic as saying finally I understand. Or in an every three day example when you don't necessarily want to emphasize it, you can put it before the main verb and say the package finally arrived this morning. Let's move on to adverbs of probability. These are used to show how likely something is to happen or be true.
Perhaps. Perhaps this is the same as maybe or possibly. Perhaps we should wait For more information. So notice this is at the beginning of the sentence. Perhaps sounds more formal than. Maybe if you were to use, maybe it would also be at the beginning of the sentence. You could say we could perhaps try a different approach. Notice this is before the main verb and you could replace perhaps with. Maybe we could maybe try a different approach. Let's review.
Likely, likely. This means probably expected to happen. Now. If it's expected to happen, it sounds like it will be the future. She'll likely arrive around noon. So this is before the main verb and the future. Simple. It's likely that we'll finish today. This is after the verb to be and notice what follows. Likely is a clause. This is a more advanced sentence structure, the more everyday sentence structure would be. We will likely finish the project today. Let's review Unlikely. The opposite of likely. Probably not going to happen. You can use that same advanced sentence structure.
It's unlikely that we'll finish today. So this is after B and then you have a clause. The regular sentence structure would be before the main verb. We will unlikely finish the project today. Let's review. Certainly, certainly this means without doubt. Certainly that's something we should consider. So you can add this to the beginning of the sentence and it makes the sentence more emphasized. You can say I can certainly help you with that. This is before the main verb. I certainly wouldn't hurt anyone over him. Or maybe you can say, Jennifer, I will certainly like this video to show my support.
So this is before the main verb and it means you will do it. So make sure you like this lesson, share it with your friends and subscribe. So you're notified every time I post a new lesson. And you can get this free speaking guide where I share 6 tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently. You can click here to download it or look for the link in the description. And here's another lesson I know you'll love. Watch it now.
