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Adverbs - English lesson
Adverbs are all those words , to put it crudely, that add more meaning to the verb in a given sentence.
Consequently , if a verb indicates action then an adverb tells you HOW that action is being performed,
WHERE that action is being performed or
WHEN that action is being performed.
Now consider the following sentences:
1 She is singing beautifully. Here the action being performed is that of singing and there is a word that tells us how the action is being performed--that is-beautifully. So beautifully is an adverb here.
2 He comes here today. In this sentence the verb obviously is 'comes' and there are words that tell us 'when' and 'where'. The words are 'today'and ' here' and both of these are adverbs.
Normally, simply by adding -ly to a given adjective we can make an adverb.
Like by adding -ly to the adjective excellent we have the adverb excellently.
So most of the words ending with -ly are adverbs.
Mind you I SAID MOST OF THE WORDS AND NOT ALL THE WORDS.
Simply because , consider the following words:
lovely
cowardly
motherly
kindly
They are all adjectives and not adverbs. Be that as it may most of the words that end with -ly are adverbs.
If you wish to recognise the adverb used in a given sentence all you have to do is see if there is a word that answers either of the following questions :
HOW?, WHERE? OR WHEN ? is an action being performed
( Do check the above two example sentences.)

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