Learning English

How to learn a word

2012-04-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

What does it really mean to know a word?

Many people believe they know a word if they can translate it in their own language. However, there is much more to any word then just translating its meaning. We are reminded of this every time we come across a word we thought we knew well in a completely unexpected context.

According to Penny Ur, a renowned English Language Teaching expert, to learn a word we need to know:

1. Form: pronunciation and spelling
2. Grammar
3. Collocation
4. Aspects of meaning (1): denotation, connotation, appropriateness
5. Aspects of meaning (2): meaning relationships
6. Word formation

Let us now consider every of these features and why we need to know them.

1. FORM: PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING

The fact that we need to know this feature is certainly not a news to you. Without the knowledge of a word's pronunciation we cannot use the word in a conversation nor recognise it when we hear it, while without the knowledge of its spelling we cannot use it in a written English (especially not in a formal piece of writing).

There is, however, another thing to have in mind - compound words . These words consists of two or more words joined together which act as a single word, that is they convey a meaning together only. This means that we cannot leave out any of the words in a compound or change their order in it without changing or completely losing the meaning of that word. For example:

mother-in-law = the mother of your husband or wife (but mother-law or in-law-mother doesn't meaning anything)

city centre = ~~centre city~~

* Sometimes the pronunciation itself may lead us to spell words wrongly, or the other way around, to pronounce words wrongly because of their spelling. This happens because we make analogies, i.e we notice certain patterns and try to apply them all the time. Unfortunately, this cannot be done consistently when it comes to languages because there are always some exceptions. I will list some words I have noticed to be problematic to students of English:

- in spite of (something): this idiom is often wrongly spelt as inspite of because of its pronunciation
which makes the first two words sound as one

- awry: some people pronounce this word as ɔːri instead of əˈraɪ because aw is often pronounced as an open o sound /ɔː/

- gauge: knowing the usual correspondence between the spelling and pronunciation most people are tempted to pronounce this word gɔːdʒ rather than geɪdʒ because in many words (laud, gauze, gaudy etc.) the au is pronounced as ɔː
* this word can also be spelt as gage which helps remembering its pronunciation since it is in line with the usual spelling of the sounds in it

2. GRAMMAR

This means that we need to know main grammatical features of a word, especially when there is some grammatical rule about its usage which is not regularly listed in grammar textbooks. I will list some most important grammatical features in my opinion. I find them to be most important because they affect how words are used within a sentence (e.g. the gender of a noun won't affect what determiner we use or what verb the noun will agree with).

* What we need to know about a noun:
- is countable/uncountable or both depending on context
- used mainly as singular/plural
- has regular/irregular plural

* What we need to know about an adjective:
- can have both attributive (before noun) and predicative (after a linking verb) position or only one of them
- has regular/ irregular comparison or both types of regular comparison (if possible)
- what prepositions come after it (afraid of, keen on, sorry for/about etc.)
- if it has a restricted use

*What we need to know about an adverb:
- kind and its usual positions in a sentence
- its comparison (if possible)
- if it has a restricted use

* What we need to know about a verb:
- transitive/intransitive or both (can have an object or not)
- what prepositions can come after it (look for/after/up/at etc.)
- what structures can come after it (noun/gerund/infinitive or clause etc.)

These four groups of words belong to the so-called open-class words. These words are productive (can be used to form new words) and their distribution is not definable by grammar. Unlike them, prepositions, conjuctions, determiners, auxiliary verbs and pronouns belong to the closed class which is unproductive. There is a relatively small number of words in this class whose distribution is grammatically definable.

3. COLLOCATION

Collocations are simply put words that go together. There are different divisions of collocations and one of them is the division into grammatical (mainly noun/verb/adjective + preposition/grammatical structure) and lexical (mainly consists of nouns, adjective, verbs and adverbs) collocations. We need to learn which words collocate with the word we are learning in order to speak naturally-sounding English. Sometimes even grammatically correct sentences sound awkward to native speakers because we do not use the usual collocations. For example, if you say "I am going to clean my teeth" a native speaker will understand you perfectly and the sentence itself is grammatical, but it may sound a bit unusal/awkward because the usual collocation is "to brush teeth".

Here are some other examples:

- She wanted to pay him a compliment so she told him she liked his new haircut.
(to pay somebody a compliment)

Many Serbian speakers would be prone to say "She wanted to give him a ..." because to give a compliment is a collocation in Serbian.

- Police have appealed for witnesses to the accident. (not: witnesses of)

- It was always my dream to run my own business. (not: lead or conduct etc.)

4. ASPECTS OF MEANING (1)

DENOTATION & CONNOTATIONS

Denotation is often defined as the explicit or direct meaning(s) of a word (or expression).
On the other hand, connotations refer to the cultural or emotional associations attached to the word.
For example:

- My boss gave me a very difficult task. (negative connotation: requires a lot of effort)
- My boss gave me a very challenging task. (positive connotation: difficult in an interesting way, testing your abilities)

- He was outwitted by his wily opponent. (negative: clever, but willing to be dishonest)
- He was outwitted by his shrewd opponent. (positive: clever, showing good judgement)

- He can be very obstinate when he wants to! (negative: not willing to change his opinions no matter what)
- He can be very determined when he wants to! (positive: not letting anything thwart his plans)

APPROPRIATENESS:

This means that we cannot use words in any context just because their meaning is suitable. For example, you do not use a very formal word in a very informal situation (talking to friends and family).

- Could you please extinguish the fire before you enter the house? (Wife speaking to her husband after a barbeque.)
- Could you please put the fire out before you enter the house? (informal, appropriate)

Although the word extinguish has the same meaning as put out it is a very formal word.
By the analogy you do not use very informal words in formal contexts (e.g. phrasal words etc.)

- Bernard Shaw was such a cool writer. (e.g. writing an essay as a part of your exam)
- Bernard Shaw was an exceptional writer. (formal, appropriate)

And for the end of this group of aspects of meaning my favourite line (from a learner of English):

This towel is just a harbinger of what I need. (saying it about a small towel since he wants a big one)

*harbinger = a sign that shows that something is going to happen, usually something bad.

5. ASPECTS OF MEANING (2)

The main categories of meaning relationship are:

1) synonyms : words or expressions which have the same or nearly the same meaning

- clever, smart, shrewd, bright, intelligent, sharp, brilliant

2) antonyms: words of opposite meaning

- rich-poor; old-new; good-bad, day-night

3) hyponyms: words with a particular meaning that is included in the meaning of a more general word
- lion, cat, mouse, giraffe, zebra are hyponyms of the word animal

4) co-hyponyms or co-ordinates: words which represent the same kind of thing

- lion, cat, mouse, giraffe and zebra are co-ordinates
- red, green, blue, black and white are co-ordinates

5) superordinate (hyperonym):general words (concepts) which cover more specific words

- animal is a superordinate of mouse, dog, zebra etc.
- colour is a superordinate of red, green, blue, violet etc.

6) WORD FORMATION

It is always useful to notice if the word has a specific ending or beginning (i.e. a particular suffixes or prefixes), if the word has the same form as some other words (e.g. nouns having the same form as verbs, or adverbs) or if it is a compound etc.

Quite productive word formation processes are: derivation (adding suffixes or prefixes), conversion, compounding, blending, clipping and others.

Derivation:

You need to notice the suffixes or prefixes attached to the word you are learning or try to guess possible ones. For example, patient (adj) has no suffixes or prefixes, but you know that there must be a word to describe someone who is not patient, there are several prefixes with a negative meaning which you may have noticed so far (-un, in, -dis etc.). If you look up for unpatient you will see that there is no such a word, while if you type inpatient a good dictionary will offer you a list of words with possible similar spellings and you will see that there is a word impatient (in+patient = impatient, assimilation process). You can also see that there is a noun patient with a very different meaning. Further, knowing that many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective you could easily find the words patiently and impatiently, and with a bit of luck or knowledge also the words patience and impatience. Thus knowing word formation processes means that you can easily expand your vocabulary list. You start with one word patient (adj) and find also: patient (N), patiently, impatient, impatiently, patience, impatience.

Conversion:
There are words which belong to different word classes yet have same forms. This is due to the word formation process known as conversion. All you need to do basically is check if the word you are learning belongs to some other word class too. For example, back can be an adjective, an adverb, a verb and a noun; pull can be a noun and a verb; upstairs can be a noun and an adverb and so on.

Compounding:

Compounds are combinations of two or more words (normally free roots): blackbird, merry-go-round, petrol tank, winter clothes, hearfelt etc. As you can see they can be written as one word (solid - blackbird, heartfelt), with a hyphen (hyphenated) or separately (open c. - winter clothes, flower pot). Sometimes it is very important to remember how they are written. For example, black bird will denote any bird whose feathers are black, while blackbird is a specific species of bird.

Clipping

These words have been formed by clipping a part of the previously existing word: ad from advertisement/advert, phone from telephone, flu from influenza, plane from airplane etc.
Thus knowing they come from these words you learn one more word, and if you look at them closely you will see that one is more formal than the other so you can choose the one that is most appropriate.

You can find more on these processes here as well http://webdelprofesor.ula.ve/humanidades/azapata/materias/english_4/unit_1_types_of_words_and_word_formation_processes.pdf

This link is more suitable for advanced learners because it tackles a bigger number of word formation process and to a great depth.

***
I hope that you will check at least a few of these features next time you are learning new words. I know that it is often impossible to find time for all of them, but to check some of them takes much less time than it may seem. Good dictionaries offer many of them in one single entry. For example, if you look up for a noun, you will also see if it is countable/uncountable, mostly singular/plural, often its collocations in bold (or similar), sometimes synonyms and antonyms listed too, as well as the words of the same root etc.

A laughter a day keeps the doctor away

2012-04-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

LaughLab, a year long project whose aim was to find the world's funniest joke, has ended and the winning joke is:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?”. The operator says “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says “OK, now what?”

http://laughlab.co.uk/

What are you sinking about?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR0lWICH3rY

The Italian man who went to Malta

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAFQFvSPhQ8&feature=share

How English sounds to non-English speakers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt4Dfa4fOEY&feature=share

A must see :D Check the description below the video :)

Position - adverbs of place

2012-04-13T09:49:00.001-07:00

1) THE USUAL POSITIONS

These adverbs normally come after the verb, verb + object, or verb + preposition + object:

- She worked abroad for a year. (after the verb)
- Put your toys away. (after verb + object)
- They looked for her everywhere. (after verb + preposition + object)

* There are phrasal verbs, however, which consist of a verb and an adverb (such as pick up, put down, clean out etc.). The object can be placed either after the phrasal verb or between the verb and the adverb:

- She picked up the pen. or She picked the pen up.

* Although not explicitly said in the Thomson-Martinet grammar, the length of object again would normally affect the position of the adverbs of place too. This is because the adverb usually modifies the verb it follows so if the object is a clause it may wrongly modify the verb in that clause instead of the main verb. For example:

- She looked everywhere for the dress she saw in her favourite movie. (She is going to many shops to find it.)

- She looked for the dress she saw in her favourite movie everywhere. (She saw the dress in the movie everywhere or she looked for it everywhere?)

* Adverbials, formed of preposition + noun/pronoun/adverb follow the same rules as any adverb of place:

- The books are on the desk.
- They sat next to me.
- He lives near here.

2) SOMEWHERE, ANYWHERE, NOWHERE

* Somewhere and anywhere are used in the same way as some and any. This means that somewhere is normally used in the affirmative or in questions when we expect a positive answer:

- I've seen him somewhere.
- Are you going somewhere? (I see you putting on your shoes.)

On the other hand, anywhere is used in ordinary questions (we do not expect any particular answer) and in the negative:

- Are you going anywhere? (e. g. for the |New Year's Eve)
- No, I cannot go anywhere.

However, it can be used in the affirmative sometimes:

- Put the box down anywhere.
- An accident can happen anywhere.

* Nowhere is not usually place after the verb (or object if there is any) except for the expression to get nowhere:

- Talking to him will get you nowhere. (You will not achieve anything with it.)

It can be used in short answers though and at the beginning of the sentence when it is followed by an inversion (verb + subject):

- Where are you going this weekend? - Nowhere. (short answer)
- Nowhere is the effect of the government policy more apparent than in agriculture. (nowhere + inversion)

3) HERE and THERE

Here/there can be followed by be/come/go + noun subject:

- Here comes the bride. (verb + subject is called an inversion; normal word order is sub. + verb + ob.)
- There goes our bus.
- There's Helen.
- Here's the money I promised you.

If the subject is a personal pronoun then be/come/go are placed after the pronoun (there is no inversion):

- Here she is.
- I cannot find my keys. Oh, here they are.
- There he comes.

These constructions carry more stress than those with here/there after the verb. There is also a difference in meaning:

- Our bus goes there. (It drives its passengers to that place.)
- There goes our bus. (We see it just leaving. We are drawing someone's attention to that fact.)

- He comes there. (He visits that place.)
- There he comes. (He is just arriving. )

* Someone and something, although pronouns themselves, follow the verb (like noun subjects do):

There's someone who can help you.

stressed there: I have just seen the person who can help you. The person has just appeared.
unstressed there: There exists a person who can help you.

Here in phone conversations:

When introducing yourself on phone you can say : George here.
You do not say ~~George is here~~.

This way of introducing on phone is the most informal and you would normally use it when talking to your close friends or family. Slightly more formal is This is George, while I am George Barker is the most formal way.

4) ADVERB/ADVERBIAL OF PLACE + INVERSION

Apart from the inversion which is possible in the above explained here/there constructions, there is also a possibility of inversion (verb + subject) after an adverb or adverbial of place.

* An adverb of place (from verb+ adverb combinations: away, down, off..) can be followed by a verb of motion:

- Away went the runners.
- Down fell the apples.
- Round and round flew the plane.

If the subject is a pronoun it comes before the verb:

- Away they went.
- Down they fell.
- Round and round it flew.

The inversion does not change the meaning but adds more drama to the expression. It is useful for literary purposes.

* An adverbial of place (normally introduced with a preposition) can be followed by verbs of motion too, verbs indicating position or be born, die and live (sometimes some other verbs too):

- By the fire lay the cat fast asleep. (Lying by the fire was the cat fast asleep.)
- On the hill stood a castle. (Standing on the hil was a castle.)
- Over the gate hung children. (Hanging over the gate were children.)

- Over the wall came a shower of songs. (cannot be transformed or it will mean that the shower lasted for some time)

* Some of the examples I liked best from Thomson-Martinet's grammar I have used here myself while others were taken from the Oxford Advanced Learner's dictionary and a few are my own.

Position - Adverbs of manner

2012-04-12T16:17:00.000-07:00

Once you learn the basic facts about adverbs (form, function, comparison etc.) what remains is to learn where to place them in a sentence. You will probably find somewhat difficult to remember all of the rules related to their position (I know I have), but you don't need to worry too much. The more we use English the better we get at it. For a start, you will improve your language by remembering at least those rules that apply to most adverbs or which correspond with your own language, later on you can build up your knowledge bit by bit. I myself will benefit a lot from revising this not at all easy area, although adverbials (a word or group of words with an adverbial meaning -manner, time etc.) offer more flexibility than other sentence constituents (subject, predicate etc.).

All the information here is taken from the so-called pedagogical grammar (such as Thomson-Martinet's one) and some other sources (such as Oxford or Cambridge dictionaries). I will not be using Quirk's grammar to further elaborate the syntactic features of adverbs (or rather adverbials) in order not to make this post overwhelming and confusing rather than helpful and useful. And to remind you once again, I myself am a recent graduate in English (non-native speaker) so I cannot claim to have an undisputed excellence in English, however, I do have a great passion for learning languages and believe that to learn a language one must use it as much as possible. If we do not use a language we are learning because we are afraid of mistakes, there is a great chance we will never become fluent speakers of that language.

A small hint: If you don't have time to check a certain rule in grammar textbooks or dictionaries when in doubt about your sentence, a good thing to do is to google your sentence and see how often such a construction comes up and on what kind of sites (reliable or unreliable in terms of grammar).

Now, let's go on with the hard work. I will write you here what I have found in grammar textbooks (Thomson-Martinet mostly) about the position of adverbs of manner. As you probably know, adverbs of manner are adverbs which describe the manner in which something was done and reply to how?.

1) VERB or VERB + OBJECT

First of all, you normally place an adverb of manner after the verb or an object if there is one, but you do not put it between the verb and its object:

* after the verb:
- He spoke softly.
- She sang beautifully.
- She prayed silently.

The adverbs (bold) modify verbs (underlined).

* after the object:
- I sat and watched everyone very closely.
- She closed the door softly behind her.
- They opened the box quietly.

The adverbs (bold) come after the objects (underlined) but they still modify the verbs.

* If you remember, their function is to modify a verb, an adverb or an adjective and some modify whole clauses. http://enya-books.blogspot.com/2012/03/adverbs.html

However, if the object is long then we normally place the adverb before the verb:

- He angrily denied that he attempted to kill his wife. (the object is underlined)
- She carefully planned the last few days of her stay in London.

* You do not put an adverb between the verb and the object:

- ~~They opened quietly the box.~~
- ~~She closed softly the door behind her~~.

2) VERB + PREPOSITION + OBJECT

Many verbs in English are followed by certain prepositions - some are followed by only one preposition (insist (up)on, accuse of, attend to etc.), while others can be followed by several prepositions (listen to/in on/, look at/for/into/on etc.).
In a construction verb + preposition + object we can place the adverb either after the object or before the preposition:

- I listened to her story carefully. (V + prep. + O + A) or
- I listened carefully to her story. (V + A + prep. + O)
- He replied to my letter quickly.
- He replied quickly to my letter

* This should not be confused with the incorrect construction V + adverb + O (e. g. ~~He spoke fluently English~~) because, as you can see, this is not a verb followed with a preposition!

Once again, if the object is long (containing several words) it affects the position of the adverb -we put the adverb before the preposition:

- I listened carefully to her story about the adventures in Africa. (the object is underlined)
- He replied quickly to my letter I sent him in a fit of anger.

                                                                 ***

Note:
A long object in verb + object sentences : adverb is put before the verb
A long object in verb + preposition + object : adverb is put before the preposition (after the verb).

The latter does not break the important rule that we do not put an adverb between the verb and object as there is a preposition before the object.

                                                                 ***

3) CLAUSE/PHRASE + ADVERB

When an adverb is placed after a clause or phrase then it normally modifies the verb in that clause/phrase. This is important to know when dealing with complex sentences (with more than one clause) or with long subjects or objects, for example.

- They secretely decided to leave the town. (the underlined object is a clause)
- They secretely decided it. (the decision was secret so when we replace the object with the pronoun it, that meaning is quite obvious)

- They decided to leave the town secretely. (the object is underlined; the leaving is secret)
- They decided it.

4 ) ADVERBS CONCERNED WITH CHARACTER AND INTELLIGENCE

There are adverbs of manner which describe character or intelligence and whose position before or after the verb greatly affects their meaning. Some of these adverbs are stupidly, kindly, foolishly, generously etc.

* before the verb:

- He kindly waited for me. (= It was kind of him to wait for me.)
- He generously paid for us all. (= It was generous of him to pay us.)

In these examples, the adverbs describe what the action was like, not how it was done. Therefore, the be + adjective + (of object) + infinitive construction can be used to express the same meaning.

* after the verb:

- He spoke kindly. (~~It was kind of him to speak to us~~. but his voice and words were kind)
- He paid us generously. (~~It was generous of him to pay~~. but the amount of money he gave was generous, bigger than expected)

In these examples the adverbs describe how the action was done, not what it was like in our opinion.

Another great example used in Thomson-Martinet grammar to further highlight the difference in meaning arising from the different position of these adverbs is the following:

- He foolishly answered the questions. (It was foolish of him to answer. He shouldn't have done it.)
- He answered the questions foolishly. (He gave foolish answers. I expected more of him.)

5) BADLY AND WELL

These adverbs are interesting as they can be used as both adverbs of manner and adverbs of degree.

As adverbs of manner they both come before the past participle in passive sentences, and after the verb or object in the active sentences:

- The country has been badly affected by the recession. (before past participle)
- The excursion was well organised.

- The kids all behaved well. (after an active verb)
- I did badly in my exams.

- He didn't play the guitar badly at all. (after an object)
- She spoke French well.

As adverbs of degree:

well has the same positions as an adverb of manner or degree.
badly (degree) has two same positions as badly (manner): it comes after the object or before the past participle , but badly as an adverb of degree comes before (not after) the verb:

- I would like the steak well done. (before the p.p.)
- Put the powder into water and shake well. (after an active verb)
- Knead the dough well. (after the object)

- The door needs a coat of paint badly. (after the object)
- The door badly needs a coat of paint. (before the verb)
- He was badly injured. (before the p.p.)

* p.p. = past participle

Again, you should be aware of the fact that different positions of adverbs may produce sentences with different meanings:

- You know well that I cannot drive. (You know this for sure. well - degree )
- You know that I cannot drive well. (I don't drive well. well - manner )

* In the first example, we have the verb + adverb + object construction. This construction is considered ungrammatical when it comes to adverbs of manner, but well here is an adverb of degree.

may/might/can/could well emphasize the probability of an action or that there is a good reason for something:

- You may well be right. (You are probably right.)
- I couldn't very well refuse to help them, could I?

can/could well = easily:

- She could well afford it.

6) SOMEHOW, ANYHOW

The only thing specific to somehow is that it can have the front position as well as the usual positions for adverbs of manner (after the verb, or after the object):

- Somehow they managed. (the front position)
- They managed somehow. (after the verb)
- They raised the money somehow. (after the object)

Anyhow is not common as an adverb of manner, but it is frequently used in the sense in any case/anyway.

- She piled the papers in a heap on her desk, just anyhow. (adverb of manner)
- I don't have time to go and anyhow it's too expensive. (anyhow = anyway)

Learning English and having fun

2012-04-10T11:59:00.004-07:00

All of us eventually grow bored with reading about grammar rules and exceptions from those rules, with studying vocabulary lists and similar. Although this may be necessary for any person striving to have a career in teaching or anything else heavily dependent on your excellence in English, we all love to have fun learning something. And having fun learning English is definitely possible thanks to diverse multimedia today.

We should never underestimate the usefulness of diverse exposure to a language. Almost any kind of exposure to the language you are trying to learn can have various benefits. However, you do need to be aware of your goals, i. e. why you learn a certain language and what you want to achieve. Having your goals in mind you can choose to learn either only from very reliable and trustworthy sites or from any site that offers some fun ways of learning. Whatever you choose if you have any doubts about what you have read you can always double check that information in Oxford, Cambridge, Longman and other dictionaries that are available online for free as well as in various grammar books (published by Oxford, Cambridge or any other publisher of academic books).

When it comes to vocabulary, having fun while learning new words is quite easy. For instance, if you love to play games you can find many word games online. My favourites are hidden object games because you have to look up a word in a dictionary in order to find some hidden object. Since you often look for some objects repeatedly you memorise words more easily - you both see the object (visual memory stimulated) and repeat the word. Some of these games are of educational character as well. They are created with a certain theme about which you get a lot of information as you progress in the game (e.g. about Buckingham Palace). Some, like Hidden Chronicles for example, are available on social networks such as Facebook. There are also scrabble, various anagram games etc.

Another interesting way of learning is by watching videos on language. I have found many interesting videos on BBC learning site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/theteacher/index.shtml
They have been very helpful to me especially with idioms (under the section Teacher )
Three idioms are explained in every video by a very amusing teacher, which helps memorising them a lot. They also have great videos on pronunciation, some interesting audios, short stories through which you learn phrasals and much more. Some videos on language can also be found on Youtube, including videos for children done by Michael Rosen, who has his own website too:
http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/

It is also very useful to watch movies or documentaries with subtitles so that you are able to compare the pronunciation and spelling of certain words and also check their meaning if necessary. My personal choice are often history documentaries where many interesting words can be learnt, but that is of course a matter of taste and need.

Audio books can be most helpful to advanced learners of English as they require good listening comprehension. Anyway, they are a very good option when one feels tired and has no will to read and study a lot. Hearing words in context helps their memorising, and in terms of grammar repetitive phrases and grammar constructions are more easily memorised this way too. There are quite a few websites which offer free audiobooks or sell them. It is also very useful to download them on your phone or tablet so you can listen to them when travelling.
http://amblingbooks.com/books/index/free_audio_books

Listening radio, especially some reputable one, like BBC or some other for American accent, is of a great use too. By listening to BBC, for instance, you are being exposed normally to RP accent, the most neutral and also esteemed one, or if you choose to listen to a few different radio stations you may be exposed to various accents. Your choice, of course, will always be dictated by your needs - whether you need to be exposed to the British or American or Australian accent, or you need to learn just one accent, compare several etc. In any case, listening to "live" English will improve your listening comprehension and possibly your pronunciation as well. At the same time you can listen to your favourite music or topic discussed on the radio.

There are also interesting sites which offer language courses which are not so tiring as serious studying can be. On such courses you learn by the help of audio material and visuals. They often feel like games yet one can learn a lot if one is persistent. I myself use Babbel to study Italian. On this site words and concepts are introduced by pictures, and every word is both pronounced and written. They are further incorporated into sentences and then dialogues. There are other sites like this one, for instance Livemocha and Palabea.
http://www.babbel.com/homepage
http://www.livemocha.com/
http://www.palabea.com/

On these sites you can also chat to native speakers of English or any other learner willing to chat. Livemocha also offers reviews of your exercises by native speakers. Some of the courses on these websites are for free, while others have to be paid for.

Podcasts, which can be downloaded from many sites, can also be both useful and fun. You can choose topics according to your liking. They can be on something you always wanted to know more about. They are often fairly short, up to half an hour often, and representing various themes in a lively way. Depending on your interests you can find some very amusing and interesting podcasts, sometimes approaching a well-known topic from a new angle etc.

You can also listen to your favourite songs while trying to memorise their lyrics. Learning lyrics by heart will help you remember words and their use in a certain context. Since we are often emotionally attached to songs we like we tend to remember words in them (and grammar to some extent) better. The worst thing for memory is indifference. If we have some emotional reaction to whatever we are listening to or reading about, whether it is happiness or anger, we memorise it better than when we are completely indifferent to the content.

I have listed everything I could remember that made learning English more fun for me.
If you can remember of any other fun way to learn English, please feel free to comment. Some of these suggestions will strike you as boring, some as fun, but that is again a matter of personal preference.

Finally, I will finish this post with a joke which always makes me smile:

And yes, of course, good jokes and funny pictures help a lot too ;)

Adverbs: comparison and constructions with comparisons

2012-04-09T06:07:00.000-07:00

Adverbs just like adjectives have both regular and irregular comparison as well as a certain number of constructions with comparison. There are many similarities between comparisons of adjectives and adverbs so I will occasionally draw your attention to them while writing about the comparison of adverbs.
REGULAR COMPARISON

1) Single-syllable adverbs (just like single-syllable adjectives) and early form comparative and superlative by adding -er and -est:

- hard, harder, hardest
- near, nearer, nearest
- early, earlier, earliest (y has changed to i)
- long, longer, longest
- deep, deeper, deepest
- high, higher, highest
- fast, faster, fastest
- low, lower, lowest

2) Adverbs of two or more syllables form comparatives and superlatives with more and most put before them:

*This is also true of adjectives, however, two-syllable adjectives ending in - er, -y or -ly normally add -er and -est like single-syllable adjectives (clever, cleverer, cleverest; silly, sillier, silliest).

- generously, more generously, most generously
- slowly, more slowly, most slowly
- quickly, more quickly, most quickly
- carefully, more carefully, most carefully
- fortunately, more fortunately, most fortunately
- snugly, more snugly, most snugly
- apologetically, more apologetically, most apologetically

IRREGULAR COMPARISON

There is a great similarity between irregular comparisons of adjectives and adverbs. There is only one adjective with irregular comparison which does not have a corresponding adverb - old, older, oldest (elder, eldest). All the other adjectives and their correspoding adverbs have comparatives and superlatives of the same form:

adjective               adverb              comparative             superlative
- bad                      - badly                - worse                       - worst
- good                    - well                  - better                       - best
- far                       -  far                    - farther/further         - farthest/furthest
- little                    - little                  - less                          - least
- many/ much       - much                 - more                        - most
- old                                                  - older/elder               - oldest/eldest

*farther/ farthest - of distance only
  further/ furthest - of distance and in abstract sense

CONSTRUCTIONS WITH COMPARISONS

a) as.... as construction

This is a construction that is used both with adjectives and adverbs in the positive form. If the verb is affirmative then we use as...as construction, while with negative verbs we use as /so....as construction:

- He spoke as slowly as he could.
- Stay as long as you like.
- She didn't run as fast as I did.
- They didn't go as far as the others.

b) comparative + than

Again, this construction is possible with both adjectives and adverbs.

- I have run faster than she did.
- He spoke slower than I. (He spoke more slowly than I.) *both comparatives possible
- They went farther than we.

* than I/you/we or than me/you/us is both possible and neither too formal nor informal, while than he/she is more useful with an auxiliary after the pronoun (e. g. than she did) to avoid sounding too formal (with subject pronoun -he/she) or too informal (with object pronoun - him/her).
c) the comparative ..... the comparative

This construction too is possible with both adjectives and adverbs and it is used to describe a parallel increase in something:

- The earlier we start the sooner we will finish.
- The harder you work the better you will live.

d) comparative and comparative

- Is time passing faster and faster as we grow older?
- He could feel his heart beating slower and slower.

Another construction used with adjectives too which describes the gradual increase or decrease in something.

e) superlative + of + noun

- He explored the area most thoroughly of the scientists.
- He went (the) furthest of the explorers.

Adjectives can be used in such constructions too, or superlative + in + noun:
- He is the youngest of the family.
- That is the tallest building in London.

However, the construction comparative (of the adverb) + than is more common.

f) There is also superlative + of all construction. Here of all refers to other actions performed by the same subject so it can be often omitted:

- He likes tennis best of all. (or He likes tennis best.)

g) comparisons with like and as

Yes, you are right! This construction too can be used with both adjectives and adverbs. However, this construction is actually used with adjective and adverb expressions:

- He swims like a fish. (like + noun; this adverb expression describes how he swims)
- He looks like a ghost. (like + noun; this adjective expression describes the appearance)

* Like is primarily a preposition (comes before nouns/pronouns/gerunds) and we use it to make comparisons. However, in colloquial English it can be used as a conjuction too:

- Why don't you run as we do?
- Why don't you run like we do?

* On the other hand, as is used as a conjunction in formal English (i. e. it normally comes before a clause) but it can also be used as a preposition too. Mind though, there is an important difference in meaning between like and as used as prepositions:
He worked like a slave. (= he worked hard)
He worked as a slave. (= he was a slave)

***
I hope that you won't find this post too overwhelming. The main reason why I have compared the comparison of adjectives and adverbs is the significant overlapping between the two which can create confusion when they are not learnt simultaneously. However, I will evenutally write about adjectives only (which I find easier to learn), i.e without these comparisons. Feel free to ask me for any clarification or to further elaborate whatever I have missed to say. I look forward to learning from you. :)

*All said here you can find in Thomson-Martinet's grammar and the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

Restricted use of certain adverbs

2012-04-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

Certain adverbs, just like some adjectives and other parts of speech, have a restricted use. This means that they cannot be used freely in any type of sentence or language mode (spoken or written).

Sometimes there is a logical explanation behind the restricted use: "little" and "few" are rarely used in spoken language because of the possible confusion with "a little" and "a few". We rather say "hardly any" or use a negative verb with much/many (I didn't see much. instead of saying I saw little.). We can also further modify "little/few" to avoid confusion (so little, too few, comparatively little etc.).

However, there are also words which simply are not used by native speakers in all contexts. One does not see a particular reason for their restricted use but it still exists. Using those words freely, i.e. without restriction, would not necessarily result in ungrammatical sentences but rather in an unnaturally sounding English.

Adverbs "long", "near", "far" and "much", for example, have a restricted use.

1) LONG

a) As it often happens with both adjectives and adverbs, comparative and superlative forms can be used freely:

- Which one of you waited longest? (interrogative verb)
- This may take longer than we thought. (affirmative verb)
- That liaison did not last longer than expected (negative verb)

b) On the other hand, the positive form of the adverb, i.e. long, is used chiefly in the interrogative and negative sentences:

- How long have you been waiting? (interrogative)
- I won't be long. (negative)

In the affirmative long is often modified (too long, so long, long enough):

- I stayed out in the sun for too long.
- I have been waiting long enough.

*We can also use "(for) a long time" in the affirmative:

- We've been friends a long time.
- It would take a long time.

* In conversation "(for) a long time" can be replaced by "(for) ages" (this is less formal):

- It took us ages to get there.

* It is also important to note that long is more usual in questions than a long time as well as the possible difference in meaning between these two expressions when used in the negative:

- Have you been here long?
- I haven't been here for a long time. (A great deal of time has passed since I was here last.)
- I haven't been here long. (I arrived a short time ago.)

2) NEAR

a) Again the comparative and superlative, nearer and nearest, can be used without restriction:

- He motioned for him to come nearer.
- He came nearest.

* "nearest" is very rare.
** You should be careful not to confuse the prepositions "near to", "nearer to", and "nearest to" with the adverb/ adjective near (and their comparative and superlative forms):

- I'll think about it nearer (to) the time. (when it is about to happen)
- She was near to tears.
- This colour is nearest (to) the original.
- Nobody else comes near her in intellect.
- I am nowhere near finishing the book.
- Do you live near here? (* near is used here before an adverb)

As you can notice, the prepositions usually come before nouns, gerunds (-ing form) and pronouns.

b) The positive form near is usually qualified by too, very, quite, so or enough:

- Don't come too near - you might catch my cold.
- I was just standing near enough to hear what they were saying.
- They live quite near.

* The preposition near with noun/pronoun/gerund or adverb has a wider use.

3) FAR

a) Far as an adverb has two forms of comparatives and superlatives (just like the same adjective):

- farther/farthest: used of distance
- further/furthest: used of distance and in the abstract sense (The police decided to investigate further.)

As it was the case with both near and long, the comparatives and superlatives of far too can be used quite freely:

- The hospital is further down the road.
- Nothing could be further from the truth.
- He went furthest of all and said that no toy guns should be sold.

b) Far in the positive form is used mainly in the interrogative and negative sentences (just like long)

- Have you come far?
- We didn't go far.

* In the affirmative far is often replaced by a long way
& far away by a long way away (similar to long and a long time) :

- We went a long way. (~~We went far~~.)
- The restaurant is a long way from here. (~~The restaurant is far from here~~. but "The restaurant is not far from here." is usual as it is a negative sentence.)
- Australia is a long way away. (~~Australia is far away~~.)

The sentences with far or far away are just less usual.

It is also possible to use very far away quite freely as well as the modified far (so far, too far, quite far, far enough):

- I'm not sure I can walk so far.
- We've gone far enough.
- He lives very far away.

* Far from/below/away/apart is also frequently used:
- He looked down at the traffic far below.
- Far away in the distance, a train whistled.

* Far can be used as an adverb of degree with comparatives or too/so + positive:
- That's a far better idea.
- She always gives us far too much homework.

* Far can have an abstract meaning:
- You've gone too far! (You have insulted me.)

4) MUCH

a) The comparative and superlative form, more and most, can be used quite freely as it was the case with the other above mentioned adverbs.

- I like her more than her husband.
- I love this painting most.

b) The positive form, much, has a restricted use:

It is quite freely used in the negative:

- We didn't see much.
- I'm not much good at tennis.

In the interrogative it is common with how :

- How much is it?
- How much money do you have?

* In questions that do not start with how it is often replaced by a lot:

- Have you written a lot/much?

In the affirmative we normally modify much (so much, too much, as much) or use the expressions a lot/a good deal/ a great deal:

- She talks too much.
- He loved her so much.
- You've helped me a lot.
- He writes a great deal.

* You should be aware of the fact that much is both an adjective (determiner) and adverb, while many is only an adjective (determiner). The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary lists both much and many in questions starting with how as determiners, while Thomson-Martinet grammar mentions much as an adverb in such questions. (This is due to different classifications of words.)

Very much (= greatly) is frequently used:

- Thank you very much for the flowers.
- I would very much like to see you again.
- We are very much aware of the lack of food supplies.

Thomson-Martinet grammar lists certain verbs that are often used with very much: blame, praise, thank and verbs concerned with feelings such as admire, amuse, approve, dislike, distress, enjoy, impress, like, object, shock, surprise etc. It is hard of course to memorise them but it is useful to know that it is often combined with verbs concerned with feelings and attitude/opinion.

Much or very much can be used with past participles: admired, amused, disliked, distressed, impressed etc.

- He was much loved by all who knew him.

Much (= a lot) can modify comparatives and superlatives of adverbs and adjectives:
* far can modify comparatives only

- Nikolai's English was much the worst.
- She is much better today.
- They did much worse last year.

Much too is used with positive forms:
* far too + positive (explained above)

- The other jacket was much too expensive.

Most before an adjective or adverb (usually of two or more syllables) can mean very :

- It was most kind of you to meet me.
- We shall most probably go to New York this year.
- He was most apologetic.

To conclude, the positive form of certain adverbs (as well as adjectives) tends to have a restricted use. Most of these adverbs can be used freely in the interrogative and negative (in all their forms), but the affirmative is characterised with restrictions. The positive form is more freely used when modified with some adverbs of degree (such as so/too/very/ or enough) or we can also replace it by certain expressions (a long time, a long way, a long way away etc.). Knowing these restrictions and ways around them makes our English sound more natural to native speakers. This is also true of collocations (or words that go together) which will be the topic of one of my future posts.

Small hint: In my experience it is easy to confuse the comparative and superlative forms of adverbs and adjectives (when they have the same form), so it is recommendable to always think of the word's function in the sentence as well as their position. (I have written about distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives in one of my previous posts.)

Spelling rules for adverbs and some notes on meaning

2012-04-07T06:17:00.000-07:00

Many adverbs (especially of manner and degree) are formed by adding -ly to their corresponding adjectives. Sometimes this requires certain adjustments of the spelling:

1) If the adjective ends in -y then we need to change that y into an i before adding -ly:
- happy + ly = happily
- merry -- merrily
- pretty -- prettily
- crafty -- craftily
- cosy -- cosily
- easy -- easily
- angry -- angrily

2) Normally we retain the final -e in adjectives when adding -ly:
- private + ly = privately
- strange -- strangely
- safe -- safely
- rude -- rudely
- extreme -- extremely
- brave -- bravely
- moderate -- moderately

** There are 3 exceptions: true --- truly, due -- duly, whole -- wholly

3) Adjectives ending in consonant + le (-tle, -ble, -ple) drop the final e and add y only:

- gentle + (l)y = gently (final e dropped, l is omitted to avoid doubling the consonats)
- simple -- simply
- possible -- possibly
- probable -- probably
- terrible -- terribly
- horrible -- horribly
- sensible -- sensibly
- reasonable -- reasonably

Although many adverbs of manner can be formed this way (by adding -ly), it is advisable to verify their existence by looking up the word in reliable dictionaries such as Oxford or Cambridge dictionaries for advanced students.

Differences in meaning

1) You should have in mind that sometimes the adverb can have a narrower or different meaning from its corresponding adjective. For instance, adjectives like cold, cool, warm and hot have a wide range of meanings, some concerned with temperature, others with feelings or taste etc. However, adverbs formed from these adjectives - coldly, coolly, warmly, hotly - have narrower meanings that are mostly related to feelings:

coldly (in an unfriendly way): She replied coldly.
coolly (in an unfriendly way/ calmly): "We're just good friends," she said coolly. or He behaved very coolly in this dangerous situation.
warmly (in a friendly way): The play was warmly received by the critics.
* it can also mean in a warm manner when referring to clothes : They dressed warmly.
hotly (indignantly): "Nonsense!" he said hotly.

On the other hand, the adjective present can mean "existing or happening now" and "being in a particular place" (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary), while the adverb presently can have a completely different meaning "after a short time" or "soon":

He will be here presently. (soon)
Presently, the door opened again and three men stepped out. (after a short time)

2) There are certain adverbs which have two similar forms with a difference in meaning. One of their forms is equal to that of their corresponding adjective, while the other is -ly form. Some of these adverbs are:

- deep/ deeply:
"deep" is used to denote the depth of space/time, while "deeply" is used mostly of feelings

They sat and talked deep into the night. vs. He was deeply offended.

- direct/ directly:
"direct" can mean "not involving other people" or "without stopping or changing direction", while "directly" can refer to time "soon/immediately" and to a kind of connection/relation "in a direct manner"

I prefer to deal with him direct. or We flew direct to Hong Kong. vs.
She left directly after the show. or He is directly responsible to the boss.

- hard/hardly:
"hard" usually means "with great effort", while "hardly" means "almost not/ none"

I have to work hard today. vs. I can hardly wait for my birthday. (= I almost cannot wait..)

- high/ highly:

"high" mainly refers to the height of something (in space, of voice, value), while "highly" means "very", "with admiration" or "at a high standard"

I cannot jump any higher. or I cannot sing that high. vs.
It is highly unlikely that she will be late. or She speaks highly of you. or He has a highly paid job.

- just/ justly:

"just" can mean "exactly", "very recently/ now", "simply", "only","really" etc, while "justly" corresponds to the adjective "just" (=fair, morally right, appropriate)

This jacket is just my size (=exactly). or I've just heard the news. (very recently) vs.
She insisted on being treated justly. or He was justly proud of his success.

- late/ lately:

"late" usually means "near the end of a certain period" or "after the expected or usual time", while "lately" means "in the recent past"

I got up late. or He became an author late in life. vs.
Have you seen her lately? or She had lately returned from India.

- most/ mostly:

"most" means "to a great degree", while "mostly" means "chiefly/ mainly" or "generally"

What did you enjoy most? vs. We're mostly out on Sundays.

- near/ nearly:

"near" usually denotes a short distance in space or time, or it can mean "almost", while "nearly" means "almost, not quite, not completely"

She took a step nearer. or I am as near certain as can be. vs.
The bottle is nearly empty. or It's nearly time to leave.

- pretty/ prettily:

"pretty" means "fairly/ very", while "prettily" corresponds with the adjective pretty (=attractive)

I'm pretty sure I'll be going. vs. The rooms are simply but prettily furnished.

- right/ rightly and wrong/ wrongly:

"right" has various meanings (exactly, completely, immediately,correctly, satisfactorily) while "rightly" is mostly used in the sense "for a good reason", it can be used also with the meaning "correctly" or "justly". Normally we use either "right" meaning correctly or "correctly" in formal language.

He was standing right behind her. (=exactly) or You guessed it right. (correctly) vs.
He was proud of his beautiful house, and rightly so. (for a good reason) or If I remember rightly, there is a train at 6 o'clock. (=correctly) or He was rightly punished. (=justly)

"wrong" usually denotes that something is not correct, "wrongly" means "incorrectly, immorally, unfair".
** Both rightly and wrongly are mostly used before a past participle (e.g. informed, accused).

My name is spelt wrong. vs. She was wrongly accused of stealing.

- short/ shortly

"short" usually denotes a shortage of something, while "shortly" can mean "soon", "briefly" or "curtly"

They had run short of fuel. or All too often you pitch the ball short. (not as far as needed) vs.
She arrived shortly after us. or "Just wait a minute," he said shortly.

It seems that adverbs of the same form as their corresponding adjectives generally have a wider range of meanings than those which were formed by the addition of -ly.

Distinguishing between adverbs and other parts of speech

2012-03-25T09:40:00.001-07:00

Traditional grammars of English classify all words in eight different groups which they call "parts of speech": articles, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions. This does not mean, however, that one word can belong only to one of these groups. Quite on the contrary, many words belong to several groups. For instance, the word "back" can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or adverb:

- He stood with his back to the door. ( back denotes a body part, noun)
- Her parents backed her in her choice of career. (back denotes the action of supporting somebody, verb)
- We were sitting in the back row. (back modifies the row, adjective)
- Sit back and relax. (back denotes the direction of movement, adverb)

Why does this happen? The answer lies in the simple fact that words cannot be defined on their own but only through their interaction with other words in a phrase, clause or sentence. So you cannot learn that "by", "fast" and "hard" are adverbs and always classify them as such in any sentence. You need to realise what their function is to be able to determine to which parts of speech they belong.

A. Distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives

1. One of the reasons why it can be difficult to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs is that some adverbs and adjectives have the same form, that is, that one word can be used as either. Apart from "back" (which can also be a noun and a verb) there are also: deep, direct, early, fast, hard, high, ill, late, little, near, pretty, straight, well, wrong etc.

To establish what parts of speech they are you need to determine what function they perform in a sentence. An adverb modifies another adverb, a verb or an adjective (sometimes a whole clause as explained in my previous post http://enya-books.blogspot.com/2012/03/adverbs.html) while an adjective modifies a noun (either being placed before it or after a linking verb). Some examples of using words as adverbs and using them as adjectives are:

a) used as adverbs:

- He stood with his hands deep in his pockets. (a long way inside of/ into something; adverb of place)
- We arrived early. (before the usual/expected time; adverb of time)
- They worked hard. (with great effort; adverb of manner)
- The animals have been ill-treated.* (badly; adverb of manner)
- She is pretty tall for her age. (quite; adverb of degree)
- The kids behaved well. (in a good, acceptable way; adverb of manner)

* ill is used as a part of a compound in this example

b) used as adjectives:

- We walked through a deep snow to get to school. (adjective describing snow)
- You are early! I didn't expect you before eight. (adjective following the linking verb be )
- It is hard to see how they can lose. (adjective following a linking verb)
- You look ill. (adjective following a linking verb)
- Such a pretty garden! (adjective describing garden)
- I don't feel very well. (adjective following a linking verb)

As you can see it is quite simple to distinguish between adverbs and adjectives when adjectives are placed before a noun (deep snow vs. deep in his pockets; a pretty garden vs. pretty tall) if we have in mind the functions which these parts of speech normally perform. However, it may be somewhat harder to distinguish between adverbs and adjectives that come after verbs.

To be able to make this distinction more easily you need to learn about the so-called linking verbs (there are about 30 altoghether) as opposed to full verbs. Full verbs are always modified by adverbs, while linking verbs are followed by adjectives or nouns. The most frequent linking verbs are be, become and seem, but there are also appear, feel, get/grow, keep, look, make, smell, sound, taste, turn etc. However, English being fond of complications does not give you a luxury to recognise these linking verbs in a sentence and say, "Aha! The word after it must be an adjective!". Why? Because most of these verbs can act as both full verbs and linking verbs. Fortunately, all you need to know is whether they describe a deliberate action (=full verb) or an involuntary action (=linking verb) and you will know what to expect after it: an adverb or an adjective. Another useful test for linking verbs is the replacement by "be" and if the sentence remains meaningful you have got a linking verb :)

Examples:

1. We arrived early. (always a full verb, adverb of time) vs. You are early. (a linking verb, adjective describing time)
* be can be followed by an obligatory adverbial (e.g. He is here.)

2. He looked angrily at her. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. He looked pale. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)

3. He turned swiftly to face his foe. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. The weather has turned cold. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)

4. He tasted the soup suspiciously. (a deliberate action; full verb + adverb) vs. The soup tasted horrible. (involuntary action; linking verb + adjective)

2. Many adverbs have an -ly ending (beautifully, slowly, quickly, magically, swiftly etc.) and some of them can be used as adjectives (kindly, daily, monthly, weekly, leisurely). There are, however, some adjectives with this ending which cannot be used as adverbs too! Such adjectives are: lovely, lonely, lively, friendly, cowardly, silly, ugly, manly and homely.

* Thomson-Martinet's grammar mentions "likely" as such an adjective, although I have found it listed as an adverb too in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

B. Distinguishing between adverbs and nouns/prepositions

So far I have written only about distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives, but you should also note that some words can be used as adverbs and nouns too, or as adverbs and prepositions.
First, I will list a few examples of words which can be used as both adverbs and nouns:

* upstairs:

- The cat belongs to the people who live upstairs. (adverb: Where do they live?)
- We've converted the upstairs into an office. (noun: What have we converted into an office?)

* outdoors:

- The rain prevented them from eating outdoors. (eating where?)
- They both have a love of the outdoors. (a love of what?)

Similarly, a word can be used as both an adverb or a preposition:

* by:

- Just drive by. Don't stop. (by = past; adverb)
- a house by the river (by= next to; preposition which normally comes before a noun, pronoun or a gerund)

* near:

- The exams are drawing near. (adverb)
- Nobody else comes near her in intellect. (preposition)

C. Distinguishing between adverbs and verbs

Finally, there are words which can be used as adverbs and verbs as well. Some of them I have already used in examples, such as "back"and also "near" ( The project is nearing completion.). Since verbs have different inflections (endings denoting time etc) from those of adverbs and adjectives and since their function in a sentence is quite different it is easier to differentiate between them and adverbs (or adjectives and nouns).

Please feel free to suggest corrections if you spot any mistakes and ask for a clarification of anything said in the post.

Adverbs

2012-03-23T11:12:00.001-07:00

What are adverbs?

Adverbs are words which further describe a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Examples:

1. Adverbs (in bold) describing verbs (underlined):

- And they all lived happily ever after. ( How did they live? Happily.)
- He looked down at her. (Where did he look? Down.)
- I soon realized the mistake. (When did I realize the mistake? Soon.)
- She always arrives at 7.30. (How often does she arrive at 7.30? Always.)
- At the time, I hardly spoke any French. (To what extent did you speak French ? I hardly spoke any.)

2. Adverbs (in bold) describing adjectives (underlined):
- She was startingly beautiful. (How beautiful was she? To what extent? Startingly.)
- I am very happy for you. (How happy are you for me? To what extent? Very.)
- The hotel is beautifully situated in a quiet spot near the river. (How is it situated? Beautifully.)

3. Adverbs (in bold) describing another adverb (underlined):
- Don't drive so fast! (How fast? To what degree? )
- He replied to my letter very quickly. (How quickly? To what degree?)

What kinds of adverbs there are?
All of the above used adverbs can be classified into several groups:

a) Adverbs of manner - they describe in what manner something was done and give an answer to how? ("happily" & "beautifully" in the above sentences; other examples: bravely, magically, fast, hard, well, quickly, slowly etc. )

b) Adverbs of place - they denote the place of the action and answer to where? ("down" in the above sentence; other examples: by, here, there, near, away, abroad, upstairs etc.)

c) Adverbs of time - they denote the time of the action and answer to when? ("soon" in the above sentence; other examples: now, today, yesterday, still, yet etc.)

d) Adverbs of frequency - they describe the frequency at which something happens and answer to how often? ("always"in the above sentence; other examples: occasionally, often, never, sometimes, twice etc.)

e) Adverbs of degree - they describe the degree to which something is done ("hardly", "startingly", "very" & "so" in the above sentences; other examples: fairly, rather, quite, too etc.)

Apart from these there are three more kinds of adverbs which have somewhat different roles in sentences:

f) Sentence adverbs:
- Certainly, the early years are crucial to a child's development.
- Quite frankly, I'm not surprised you succeeded.
- They have presumably sold their house.
- He knew the town well apparently.
- I didn't tell anyone, honestly!

As you can see from the above examples, these adverbs modify the whole sentence (or clause) and express the speaker's opinion. To be more precise, they often convey the degree of certainty with which the speaker states something (certainly, actually, apparently, clearly, evidently, obviously, presumably, surely, perhaps etc.) or the speaker's attitude (frankly, honestly, luckily, unfortunately).

g) Interrogative adverbs - why, when, where, how

- Why was he late? (for what reason?)
- When do you get up? (at what time?)
- Where do you live? (in what place?)
- How did you come? ( in what way?)

* How can also be used with adjectives (How tall is she?), much and many (How much does it cost?/How many people were there?) and with adverbs (How fast can it go?).

h) Relative adverbs - when, where, why

- the year when he was born (when = in which)
- the day when they arrived (when = on which)
- the hotel where they were staying (where = at which/in which)
- the reason why he refused (why = for which)

To explain what adverbs are and what kinds of them exist I have used examples from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, from Thomson & Martinet's grammar textbook and from the Internet as well. In my future posts I will continue to write about adverbs - their usual positions in the sentence, about each kind of them separately, about distinguishing between an adverb and an adjective, or sometimes even an adverb and a preposition or a noun, etc.

Please feel free to ask me about anything that you didn't understand in my post or to draw my attention to possible mistakes I have made. Also any additional elaboration closely related to the topic of the post is very welcome.