Adverbs of Manner: Form, Position and Examples
Adverbs of manner tell us how something happens: slowly, carefully, well. Most are made by adding -ly to an adjective, but a few important ones break the rule.
By LearnLingo Team · Updated
Form
| Adjective (describes a noun) | Adverb (describes a verb) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| slow | slowly | He is a slow driver. He drives slowly. |
| careful | carefully | She is careful. She works carefully. |
| quiet | quietly | It's a quiet room. Please speak quietly. |
| bad | badly | I'm a bad singer. I sing badly. |
| good | well | You're a good cook. You cook well. |
| fast | fast | It's a fast car. It goes fast. |
Ask: am I describing a person or thing (a noun)? Use the adjective. Am I describing how someone does something (a verb)? Use the adverb.
| Adjective ending | Rule | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Most adjectives | add -ly | quick, quickly; loud, loudly; careful, carefully |
| Consonant + y | change y to i and add -ly | easy, easily; happy, happily; angry, angrily |
| Consonant + le | drop the e and add -y | gentle, gently; terrible, terribly; possible, possibly |
| -ic | add -ally | automatic, automatically; dramatic, dramatically |
| Silent -e | usually keep the e and add -ly | nice, nicely; polite, politely; safe, safely |
Learn these exceptions: true, truly; whole, wholly; due, duly; and public, publicly (not publically).
| Adjective | Adverb | Note |
|---|---|---|
| good | well | She plays the piano well. |
| fast | fast | Fastly is not a word. |
| hard | hard | Hardly is a different word that means almost not. |
| late | late | Lately is a different word that means recently. |
| early | early | The same word is the adjective and the adverb. |
| straight | straight | Go straight home. |
What adverbs of manner do
An adverb of manner tells us how someone does something. It answers the question How? How does she speak? She speaks softly. How did they play? They played badly.
Adjectives describe nouns: a slow train. Adverbs of manner describe verbs: the train moved slowly. This is the key difference, and it is the source of most mistakes with this topic.
Most adverbs of manner come from adjectives. Add -ly to the adjective and you have the adverb: quick becomes quickly, careful becomes carefully.
Please drive carefully. The roads are icy.
The old man walked slowly to the door.
She answered the question correctly.
He closed the door quietly so he didn't wake the baby.
Irregular adverbs: well, fast, hard, late, early
A few very common adverbs do not follow the -ly rule. The most important is well, the adverb of good: You speak English well, not You speak English good.
Fast, hard, late, early and straight have the same form as the adjective. Be careful: hardly and lately exist, but they have different meanings. Hardly means almost not (I hardly slept means I slept very little). Lately means recently (Have you seen Sam lately?).
Well can also be an adjective meaning healthy: I'm not well today. That is why I feel well and I am well are both correct.
My brother cooks really well.
Don't talk so fast. I can't follow you.
They worked hard all week.
They worked hardly would mean they did almost no work.
The train arrived late again.
I hardly know her.
Hardly = almost not. This is a different word from hard.
Where adverbs of manner go
The usual position is after the verb: She sings beautifully. If the verb has an object, put the adverb after the object: She sings the song beautifully, not She sings beautifully the song. Never put the adverb between a verb and its object.
Sometimes adverbs of manner go before the main verb for emphasis or style, especially in writing: He quickly opened the box. With a longer sentence, this can sound more natural. Starting a sentence with the adverb is dramatic and common in stories: Slowly, the door opened.
For how often words like always and never, the rules are different. See adverbs of frequency, and for the general rules read English word order.
She speaks English fluently.
Not: She speaks fluently English.
He quietly left the room.
Suddenly, all the lights went out.
Read the instructions carefully before you start.
Linking verbs take adjectives, not adverbs
Some verbs describe a state, not an action. These linking verbs are followed by an adjective, not an adverb: be, seem, become, look, sound, feel, smell, taste. The adjective describes the subject, not the action.
Compare: The soup smells good (the soup has a good smell) and The dog smells carefully (the dog uses its nose with care). You look happy describes you. You looked happily at the cake describes the way you looked at it. Many of these verbs are stative verbs.
This cake tastes delicious.
You sound tired. Are you OK?
I feel bad about what I said.
Feel badly is heard in American English, but feel bad is the standard form.
She looked angrily at the waiter.
Here look is an action, so we use an adverb.
Comparing adverbs and making them stronger
To compare adverbs that end in -ly, use more and most: She drives more carefully than her brother. Irregular adverbs follow the adjective pattern: faster, harder, earlier, and well becomes better and best. Read more in comparatives and superlatives.
We can make adverbs of manner stronger or weaker with very, really, quite, extremely and a bit: He spoke very slowly. She did quite well in the test.
Some words that end in -ly are adjectives, not adverbs: friendly, lovely, lonely, ugly, silly. They have no adverb form, so we use a phrase instead: He spoke to me in a friendly way.
Could you speak a bit more slowly, please?
Mia runs faster than anyone in her class.
Our team played better in the second half.
The receptionist smiled at us in a friendly way.
Friendly is an adjective, so there is no friendlily.
In real life
In everyday conversation, people often use adverbs of manner in requests and instructions: Speak up, I can't hear you clearly. Drive safely! Take it slowly.
In informal American English you will hear adjectives used as adverbs, like Drive safe, Take it easy, He did real good or Come quick. Some of these are fixed phrases that everyone uses (take it easy, drive safe), but in writing and exams use the standard -ly form and well.
Drive safely! Text me when you get home.
Sorry, the line is bad. I can't hear you clearly.
How did the interview go? Really well, thanks.
Take it easy this weekend.
A fixed phrase; easy is used as an adverb here.
Common mistakes
She speaks English very good.
She speaks English very well.
Good is an adjective. The adverb that describes how someone does something is well.
He drives very careful.
He drives very carefully.
Careful describes a noun (a careful driver). To describe how he drives, add -ly. Many languages use the same word for both, so this is easy to miss.
I speak fluently English.
I speak English fluently.
Don't put the adverb between the verb and its object. Put it after the object.
I worked hardly yesterday.
I worked hard yesterday.
The adverb of hard is hard. Hardly means almost not, so the wrong sentence means you did almost no work.
This pizza tastes deliciously.
This pizza tastes delicious.
Taste here is a linking verb that describes the pizza, so it takes an adjective.
Practice quiz
10 questions. Pick an answer to see if it is right and why.
1. Please speak ___. The baby is asleep.
2. What is the adverb of good?
3. Choose the correct sentence.
4. She studied ___ for the exam and passed easily.
5. What does I hardly slept last night mean?
6. The flowers smell ___.
7. Which is the correct adverb of happy?
8. Choose the correct sentence.
9. The test was ___ easy. I finished in ten minutes.
10. The bus was ___, so I missed my first class.
0 of 10 answered
Show all answers
- quietly
- well
- He plays the guitar well.
- hard
- I slept very little.
- lovely
- happily
- She runs faster than me.
- surprisingly
- late
See what the A2 English course covers, or test your level first.
People also ask
What is an adverb of manner?+
It is a word that tells us how an action happens. It answers the question How?, for example slowly, carefully, loudly or well. Most are made by adding -ly to an adjective.
Is fastly a word?+
No. Fast is both the adjective and the adverb: a fast car, it goes fast. The same is true for hard, late, early and straight.
Is it I feel good or I feel well?+
Both are correct but slightly different. I feel good is about your mood or general feeling, and I feel well usually means you are healthy. Feel is a linking verb, so it takes an adjective, and well is also an adjective meaning healthy.
Where do adverbs of manner go in a sentence?+
Usually after the verb, or after the object if there is one: She spoke clearly, She read the letter carefully. They can also go before the main verb or at the start of a sentence for emphasis, but never between a verb and its object.
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