Adverbs of manner are used to describe how things happen. They are usually put after the verb.

 

The boy runs quickly.

 

The music plays loudly.

 

Frank speaks English very well.

 

Adverbs of manner are usually formed by adding ‘-ly’ to the adjective:

 

careful → You should drive carefully at night.

 

polite → Mary looks sad. Could you ask her politely, what has happened to her?

 

serious → Seriously speaking, I don’t like this idea.

 

If the adjective ends in ‘-le’, remove ‘-e’ and add ‘-y’:

 

gentle → This mechanism should be cleaned very gently.

 

terrible → I will miss you terribly.

 

If the adjective ends in a consonant + ‘-y’, change ‘-y’ to ‘-ily’:

 

angry → She looked at me angrily.

 

easy → Jack can do grammar exercises easily.  

 

noisy → Your old printer works noisily, you should change it for a new one.

 

If the adjective ends in ‘-ful’, double the ‘-l’ and add ‘-y’:

 

beautiful → Mary has cooked the meat beautifully.

 

successful → Not all students passed their exams successfully.

 

Some adverbs of manner are not formed by adding ‘-ly’:

 

– ‘Well’ is the adverb of ‘good’. We often use ‘very’ and ‘quite’ with ‘well’:

 

Jane speaks German and French very well.

 

Nick runs long distances quite well.

 

– Some adjectives ending in ‘-ly’, like ‘friendly’, ‘lovely’, ‘silly’, ‘ugly’, don’t change to become adverbs.

 

He spoke to me in a friendly manner. (NOT He spoke to me friendlyly)

 

Her dancing is so lovely. (NOT She dances so lovelyly).

 

– Adverbs of manner, like ‘early’, ‘late’, ‘fast’, ‘hard’, ‘low’, have the same form as their adjectives:

 

The bus is late again (adjective).

 

A am afraid, we’ll arrive late (adv).

 

Tom drives very fast, it’s dangerous.

 

We’re working hard all day long.

 

Note: an adverb of manner should not be put between a verb and an object: He plays football perfectly NOT He plays perfectly football