Practise Identifying Adverbs in a Sentence

Can you identify the verb and adverb in this sentence?

 

Bronwen happily sang a magnificent tune.

 

The verb here is sang.

 

Happily is an adverb as it tells us how Bronwen sang.

 

 

Adverbs of Manner

Happily is an adverb of manner as it tells us how something is done.

 

How else could Bronwen have sung her tune?

 

We could have:

Bronwen quietly sang a magnificent tune.

Bronwen sang a familiar tune well.

 

 

The adverb can appear before or after the verb.

 

Lots of adverbs of manner end in -ly but as you can see, well doesn’t.

 

Adverbs of Time

As well as telling us how something is done, adverbs can tell us when something is done.

 

Bronwen always sang magnificent tunes.

 

When did Bronwen sing? Always

 

This is an adverb of time.

 

 

Here are some other adverbs of time:

Never

Yesterday

Often

Soon

Again

Today

 

Can you put any of these adverbs into our sentence about Bronwen singing?

 

We could have:

Bronwen never sang magnificent tunes.

Bronwen sang magnificent tunes again.

 

Adverbs of Place

As well as adverbs of manner and time, we can also use adverbs of place.

 

Adverbs of place tell us where something is done.

 

Bronwen sang a song outside.

 

Other adverbs of place include:

Below

Inside

Everywhere

There

Downstairs

Away

 

Could any of these work in our sentence about Bronwen?

 

We could have:

Bronwen sang a song downstairs.

Bronwen sang a song inside.

 

Do you notice that these adverbs of place often come after the verb?

 

 

In this activity, you’ll be on the hunt for adverbs of manner, time and place in a section of text.