Learn About Adverbs For Kids And Its Types With Examples

Making a sentence in English requires nouns and verbs. You have already learnt the rules that govern how to use these two types of words. “I am running”, “They work”, “She danced” are some simplest sentences that talk about an action and the person performing it. But when you read these sentences, you may feel curious for some more information about the action.

To provide this information, you need to add one more word in your sentence, called adverbs in English. Adverbs help us describe, change or add more information about a verb in a sentence. The meaning of adverbs in English is, words that modify (describe) a verb, an adjective, adverb, or even a whole sentence. Read on to understand all about adverb words in detail.

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What Are Adverbs? 

Let us look at the definition of adverbs for kids. Adverbs are words used to change, describe, or add more information about a verb in a sentence. An adverb can also modify an adjective or even other adverbs with the purpose of making the meaning of the sentence clearer.

Depending on the type of adverb that’s being used, they can tell a person how an action occurs or where does it happen. It can also describe when the action happens, or even the frequency of this action. 

When Should Your Child Learn About Adverbs? 

Nouns and verbs form the basics of English grammar. Once your child has learnt to recognise these in a sentence, they can move on to learn about words that modify these nouns and verbs, like adjectives and adverbs. Learning these concepts at an early age and including adverbs in their vocabulary will make your child an eloquent speaker. They will be able to express themselves using simple adverbs when learning occurs naturally.

Why Do Kids Need To Learn Adverbs? 

Adverbs are important because they are the part of the sentence that adds more detail and information to it. They give additional detail about how things happen, and they are arguably what makes a string of words unique and interesting in a sentence. 

List Of Adverbs For Kids To Enhance Their Vocabulary 

Here is a list of some commonly used adverbs for kids to learn and make it a part of their vocabulary. Try incorporating these words in day-to-day communication so that kids learn these words naturally and understand their meanings in context.

Different Types Of Adverbs For Children With Examples 

Let us look at all the different kinds of adverb in this section. They are categorised based on what effect they have on the word they are modifying.

1. Adverbs Of Manner 

These are the words used to describe how something is done. This is excellent to bring more details in the description of an event. Some of the most used adverbs of manners are: 

Examples Of Adverbs Of Manner

1. I gently comb my hair every morning.
2. It was Radha’s birthday, so her sister secretly bought her a present. 
3. In the library, everybody has to talk softly. 
4. He has arranged his room neatly. 
5. Jenny and her family are living happily. 
6. Mother shouted at me angrily. 
7. Vijay was carefully reading the circular. 

2. Adverbs Of Place 

An adverb of place describes the location of the action or where something happens. These adverbs can refer to directions, distances, or relative position of an action. 

Some of the most used adverbs of place are: 

Examples Of Adverbs Of Place

1. Rama works here in this office. 
2. The neighbourhood has a coffee shop nearby. 
3. She headed west to the beach. 
4. Shaili lives behind the museum. 
5. He is running around the track. 
6. I’ll put your toys here. 
7. She is travelling far to visit her mom. 

3. Adverb Of Time 

As their name stated, the adverbs of time describe when things happen, for how long they happened, or even for how frequently an action happened. These adverbs are usually placed at the end of the sentence, but their position in the sentence can be switched for laying more emphasis on something in particular. 

Examples Of Adverbs Of Time

1. Mary has gone for a run now. 
2. Yash and Roohi will soon be travelling to the moon!
3. I recently bought a few notebooks for school. 
4. Then, it was time to say goodbye. 
5. I will go to the mall tomorrow. 
6. Viha is still waiting for her mother to arrive. 
7. Let’s play a game tonight. 

4. Adverb Of Degree 

These adverbs describe the intensity or degree of something, it could be an adjective, an action, or even another adverb. These are some of the most common adverbs of degree:

Examples Of Adverbs Of Degree

1. Arjun is quite helpful around the house.
2. Soma has practically not been able to go out. 
3. She is so beautiful!
4. I am somewhat preoccupied with my skating practice. 
5. Swami runs very fast. 
6. Juhi is most active in the morning. 
7. My older son is practically out of college. 

5. Adverb Of Frequency  

The main use of the adverbs of frequency is to describe how often an action occurs, or how many times has happened, to change the meaning of the sentence. Usually, these adverbs can also be seen as adverbs of degree, however, the use is not the same. 

Examples Of Adverbs Of Frequency

These are the most used adverbs of frequency: 

1. Ritu never gets angry. 
2. Bijal always goes to the mall on Saturday. 
3. I will eventually study for the test! 
4. I work on this project daily. 
5. Prem is often swimming in the pool. 
6. We usually travel by bus, but today we took a taxi. 
7. I occasionally watch cartoons of TV.

6. Interrogative Adverbs 

The interrogative adverbs are why, where, how, and when. The word “Interrogative” means relating to a question. This means, this set of adverbs are useful when asking a question about an action. The word is placed at the beginning of a question. 

Examples Of Interrogative Adverbs

1. Why are you so late to school?
2. Where is my notebook?
3. How are you? I’m fine. 
4. When does the train arrive? At 11:15. 
5. How did you make this sauce? 
6. How old is your house?
7. How quickly can you read this? 

How Can Your Child Identify The Adverb In Sentences? 

There is a common characteristic that makes it easy to identify an adverb in a sentence, usually, they look like adjectives that end in -ly. Words like “quickly”, “happily” or “shortly” are adverbs. However, this rule doesn’t apply to all of these words, so sometimes identifying them in a sentence is not as easy. 

Another way of doing this is by looking at their placement in the sentence, which can help when in doubt. Most times, adverbs are located immediately before or after the word they’re modifying. If there are still doubts about which one is the adverb, then it’s advisable to look for the words that are adding information or describing other words in the sentence. Ask the questions, “Where”, “When” and “How” for the verb, and it will usually point you in the direction of an adverb in the sentence. 

Activities That Will Help Your Child Learn About Adverbs  

Teaching adverbs to your child will become easier with these interesting activities that will engage your child in a fun learning experience:

1. Dumb Charades! 

Write down lots of adverbs on small chits of paper, like quickly, softly, carefully, etc. Let your child pick out one chit, and read the adverb. Now, they must perform any action with that adverb. Eg, if they picked up quickly, they can act out chopping vegetables quickly, or drinking their cup of milk quickly. The rest of the family has to guess what adverb is being played out. Isn’t this a fun family night game?

2. Pair Up!

Try this activity at the next get together where there are lots of children. Divide the children into two groups. One with adverbs and one with actions. Prepare chits of lots of adverbs and actions, and let the kids pull out chits. Now, play music loudly while keeping your eyes closed, and count to 30. The children must pair up with the most suitable adverb-verb combination. Eg. Slow will pair up with crawling, melodiously will pair up with singing, generously will pair up with donating and so on. At the end of your count to 30, turn off the music. The children who haven’t found their pairs yet will be “out” and the other pairs will continue with the next round by picking new chits. An educational twist to the simple game of musical chairs.

3. Say “Well, Well!”

It’s story time!! Read out a story to your child, but ask them to listen very carefully and pay close attention to each word. As soon as you speak a sentence with an adverb, they must stop and say “Well, Well!” If you have two kids, or more, make it a competitive game of who says it first. The child has to correctly name the adverb in the sentence to win a point!

4. Quality Time

Spend some quality time with your children and talk to them about their day, and tell them about yours. Help each other out by giving advice on how each should do certain tasks. However, for each sentence of advice, an adverb must be used. For instance, you may want to tell your child to wake up “early” so that they don’t miss their breakfast. Your child might want to tell you to work “calmly” if they notice you being anxious about your assignments.

5. DIY Card Game

For this activity, prepare small flashcards with a variety of nouns, verbs and adverbs. Put the cards in three separate stacks. You might also want to prepare the cards on different coloured paper, or simply stamp it with different coloured stamps to make them look like a deck.

Let your child pull out one card from each stack. Can they place the cards together to form a meaningful adverb sentence? If they are lucky, they might get “Cat” “Walks” “Slowly”. If not, they could also be stuck with “Ice” “Dances” “Daily”. Ask your child if they can imagine a couple of words to form any meaningful sentence, like “She dances on ice daily.”

Exercises That Will Help Your Child To Practice The Adverbs 

Practice makes you perfect! Now that you have learnt some common adverbs try your hand at these exercises to practice identifying adverbs in simple sentences.

Exercise 1: Fill in the blanks with the correct adverbs

1. This news is _____ good to be true. (many, rarely, well, too) 
2. She was brave _____ to stand up to her bullies. (very, enough, above, never) 
3.  He studied _____ well for the exam. (daily, never, fairly) 
4.  My grandmother is feeling _____ better today. (finely, very, badly, much) 
5.  Shruti knows Megha _____ well. (always, quite, safely, often) 
6. Raghav is _____ late to school. (seldom, badly, quickly, more)  

Answers:

1. too
2. enough
3. fairly
4. much
5. quite
6. seldom

Exercise 2: Identify the types of adverbs in below sentences

1. Very few rulers treated their subjects mercifully.  
2. The protestors are going to start marching from here. 
3. The NGO holds the lottery weekly. 
4. The teacher is rarely absent. 
5. The orchestra performed very well in tonight’s show. 
6. When are the college elections being held? 

Answers:

1. Adverb of manner
2.  Adverb of place
3. Adverb of time
4. Adverb of frequency
5. Adverb of degree
6. Interrogative adverb

In English grammar, your child will constantly learn lots of new adjectives, adverbs, words, verbs, nouns etc, to enhance their vocabulary. With thorough knowledge and enough practice, they will be able to read, write and speak in English with confidence.

Also Read:

Modal Verbs for Children
Modal Form Of the Verb-Can
Pronouns for Kids to Improve Vocabulary