Adverbs - part 1
(Words in English that end in -ly)

PART 1

 

The first part of this lesson explains what adverbs are and when they might commonly be used in conversation in both Spanish and English.

 

What are adverbs?

 

Adverbs, as the word suggests are words that add extra information about other words that they might be used with. They are not just used to add extra information about verbs, they can also commonly used with adjectives, or other adverbs. They can also be used with nouns although this is much less common!

 

Adverbs with verbs.	To talk slowly.	Hablar  lentamente.
Adverbs with adjectives.	It became dark quickly.	Se pone oscuro rápidamente.
Adverbs with nouns.	Definitely custard.	Definitivamente natilla.
Adverbs with adverbs.	Very frequently.	Muy frecuentemente.

 

You can see that each of the underlined adverbs above in both English and Spanish add information to the other words they are used with. Adverbs can also be used by themselves.

 

¿(Tú) terminaste el trabajo en tiempo?	Fácilmente.
Did you finish the work in time?	Easily.

 

You will probably have noticed that most of the English adverbs in the examples above end in -ly and most of the Spanish ones end in -mente. The only exception is the adverb ‘very’ (muy). The adverbs that take these endings are looked at in more detail in part 2 of the lesson.

 

There are too however a large number of adverbs that don’t end in -ly or -mente. These will be looked at in part three of the lesson.

 

PART 2

 

The second part of this lesson looks specifically at those adverbs that end in -ly in English and -mente in Spanish. Most of the time if an English adverb ends with -ly you will know that the equivalent Spanish adverb should end with -mente. This is not always the case however.

 

Forming Spanish adverbs ending in -mente

 

Spanish adverbs that end in -mente are formed by changing adjectives into adverbs. The ending -mente is added to the end of the adjective. If the adjective takes both a masculine and feminine ending it is always the feminine ending that is added to. If the ending of a masculine and feminine adjective is formed in the same way then -mente is simply added to the end of it with no further change.

 

masculine adjective	feminine adjective	adverb
raro (rare/strange)	rara	raramente
ligero (light – of weight)	ligera	ligermente
oficial (official)	oficial	oficialmente
normal (normal)	normal	normalmente

 

When the ending -mente might not be used

 

Sometimes English words ending in -ly are not always translated into Spanish by using an adverb that ends with -mente. These can occur in the following situations:

 

1)      When forming sentences with more than one adverb. In these situations in Spanish only the last adverb is formed with -mente.

 

He can talk quickly, loudly or softly.

Él puede hablar rápido, fuerte o suavemente.

 

2)      Sometimes the adjectives or nouns are used in Spanish with phrases like ‘con’ (with), ‘sin’ (without), or ‘de manera’ (by way of).

 

Ellos pisaron con cuidado.	They trod carefully.
Ella terminó con prisa.	She finished hastily.

 

Háblame de manera verdadera.	Talk to me truthfully.
Ellos lucharon de manera valiente.	They fought bravely.

 

3)      The English adverb ‘recently’ is used differently in Spanish. (The word ‘recién’ is frequently used with perfect tenses.)

 

Ellos recién han llegado.	They recently arrived.
No le he visto últimamente a él.	I haven’t seen him recently.

 

PART 3

 

The third part of the lesson looks at some of the most common Spanish adverbs that don’t end in -mente. Many of these adverbs in English do not end in -ly either.

 

100 adverbs that don't end in -mente.

abajo	below, downstairs
acá	here, over here
acaso	perhaps, maybe
además	besides / furthermore
adentro	in, inside
¿Adónde?	To where?
afuera	outside
ahí	there
ahora	now
ahora mismo	right now
algo	somewhat
alguna parte	somewhere
allá	there / over there
allí	there / over there
allí mismo	right there
alto	loudly
anoche	last night
anteanoche	the night before last
anteayer	the day before yesterday
antes	before, previously
apenas	hardly, barely
aprisa	quickly
aquí	here
arriba	above, upstairs
así	like this, like that, so, this way
atrás	behind
aun	even
aún	still, yet
ayer	yesterday
bajo	softly, quietly
barato	cheaply
bastante	quite, enough, very
bien	well
casi	almost
cerca	near, nearby
claro (also claramente)	clearly
¿Cómo?	How?
como	like, as, such as
¿Cuál?	Which one?
¿Cuándo?	When?
¿Cuánto?	How much/many?
debajo	underneath
delante	ahead, in front
demasiado	too
dentro	inside
derecho	straight
despacio	slowly
después	after
detrás	behind
¿Dónde?	Where?
duro	hard
encima	on top, above
enfrente	in front of
enseguida	straightaway
entonces	then, next
excepto	except for
fuera	outside, out
fuerte (also fuertemente)	loudly, hard
harto	enough, sufficiently
hasta	even, until
hoy	today
hoy en día	nowadays
jamás	never
lejos	away
lento (also lentamente)	slowly
luego	soon
mal	badly
mañana	tomorrow
más	more
mejor	better
menos	less
mientras	while
mismo	even
mucho	a lot
muy	very
ni	neither
no	no
nunca	never
peor	worse
poco	few, little
¿Por qué?	Why?
pronto	soon
quizás	perhaps, maybe
rápido	quickly
recio	hard
sereno	calmly
sí	yes
siempre	always
sino	but
sólo (also solamente)	only
tal vez	maybe, perhaps
también	also, too
tampoco	neither
tan	so, very
tanto	so, as much, many
tarde	late
temprano	early
todas partes	everywhere
todavía	still, yet
ya	already

The following are some example sentences that use some of the adverbs in the above list.

 

No puedo ahora.	I cant now.
Nos quedabamos en un hotel anteayer.	We stayed in a hotel the day before yesterday.
Hace bastante calor.	It’s very hot.
¿Dónde vas? Delante de ellos.	Where are you going? In front of them.
Está nevando hasta ahora.	It’s snowing even now.
Es mejor que no me preguntes.	Its better that you donçt ask me.
(Yo) lo vi allá.	I saw it there.
Nosotros sólo queremos verlo.	We only want to see it.
Ya vosotros regresáis por más.	Already you (all) come back for more.

 

Using the adverb aun or aún

 

aun	even
aún	still or yet

 

Aun Diego puede hacerlo.	Even Diego can do it.
Aún tenemos tiempo.	We still have time.
Aún no.	Not yet.

 

That concludes this lesson on the adverbs part 1. If you have not done so already watch the actual video for this lesson and then try one of the associated quizzes to test your understanding.