Spanish Adverbs

Adverbs (adverbios) are invariable words that modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs can provide additional information about manner, quantity, frequency, time, or place. Many adverbs are formed from adjectives, by adding the suffix -mente to the feminine singular form, the same way we add (-ly) to an adjective in English. Adverbs explain when, how, where, how often, or to what degree something is done. There is a list of the most common adverbs at the bottom of this page.

Positions of Spanish Adverbs:

- If a Spanish adverb is modifying a verb, we place the adverb after the verb: jugas bien (you play well)

- No adverb can be put between two verbs like in English, it should be placed after the two verbs: vamos a jugar aquí (let's play here)

- When an adverb is modifying another adverb or an adjective, the adverb will be placed before the adverb/ adjective it modifies:

- escribes muy bien (you write very well) - yo estoy siempre orgulloso de mi país (I'm always proud of my country)

So the easiest part is to change adjectives into adverbs by simply adding ~mente. Here is an example of how to change an adjective to an adverb:

- Su herida está grave (her wound is serious) becomes - Ella está gravemente herida (She is seriously wounded.)

In a series of adverbs, only the last one takes the -mente suffix, while the other adverbs have the form of feminine adjectives:
El intérprete debe pensar clara, rápida y correctamente. (The interpreter should think clearly, quickly and correctly.)

Summery of Spanish Adverbs:

To form an adverb from an adjective in Spanish we simply add (~mente) to the Spanish adjective, just like how we add (~ly) to the adjective in English.

Adjective lento (slow) becomes adverb lentamente (slowly): puedes hablar lentamente? (Can you speak slowly?)

There are adverbs that don't have anything to do with adjectives, like aquí (here), bien (well), despacio (slowly)... if you scroll down you will see a long list of adverbs related & non related to adjectives, they’re used very often, so it would be very helpful to memorize them! Good luck!

List of Adverbs:

SPANISH ADVERBS
MANNER ADVERBS		QUANTITY ADVERBS

(adjective)+mente	(adjective)+ly	apenas	hardly, barely
alto	loudly	bastante	quite, enough
bajo	softly	casi	almost
bien	well	demasiado	too much
mal	poorly	más	more
mejor	better	menos	less
peor	worse	mucho	a lot
		muy	very
FREQUENCY ADVERBS		poco	few, little
		tanto	so/as much/many
a veces	sometimes
frecuentemente	often	TIME ADVERBS
nunca	never
raramente	rarely	actualmente	currently
siempre	always	ahora	now
		anteayer	the day before yesterday
PLACE ADVERBS		ayer	yesterday
		cuando	when
abajo	below, downstairs	después	after
acá	here, over here	entonces	next, then
adentro	in, inside	hoy	today
afuera	outside	luego	soon
alguna parte	somewhere	mañana	tomorrow
allá	over there	mientras	while
allí	there	por fin	finally
aquí	here	pronto	soon
arriba	above, upstairs	tarde	late
cerca	nearby	temprano	early
delante	ahead	todavía	still, yet
detrás	behind	ya	already
donde	where
encima	above, on top	POINT OF VIEW ADVERBS
enfrente	in front of
fuera	outside	personalmente	personally
todas partes	everywhere	quizás	perhaps
		evidentemente	obviously
NEGATION ADVERBS
		INTERROGATION ADVERBS
jamás	never
ni	neither	¿adónde?	To where?
no	no	¿cómo?	How?
nunca	nunca	¿cuándo?	When?
tampoco	neither	¿cuánto?	How much/many?
		¿dónde?	Where?
INCLUSION ADVERBS		¿porque?	Why?

además	moreover
aún	still, yet
tambien	also, too

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