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Learning English

position of adverbs

Jang-Joon Lee from Korea writes:

I studied English for more than twenty years in

school. But I still don't know the exact position of

an adverb. Is there any rule regarding the

position of adverbs? Thanks a lot.

Roger Woodham replies:

There arethree normal positions for adverbs in a sentence:

1) initial position (before the subject)

2) mid position (between the subject and the verb or

immediately after be as a main verb) or

3) end position (at the end of the clause).

Different types of adverbs favour different positions and I

describe these trends below. There are sometimes exceptionsto the general rule, so please regard this as a basic guide.

Initial position

Linking adverbs, which join a clause to what was said before,

always come here. Time adverbs can come here when we want

to show a contrast with a previous reference to time. Comment

and viewpoint adverbs (e.g. luckily, officially, presumably)

can also come here when we want to highlight what we are

about to say. Compare the following:

Two of the workers were sacked, and, as a result,

everybody went on strike.

We invited all the family. However, not everyone could

come.

The weather will stay fine today, but tomorrow it will

rain.

Initially, his condition remained stable, but over the last

few weeks it has deteriorated.

Margaret ran the office, although, officially, Trevor wasthe manager.

I haven't made any plans yet, butpresumably you'll want

to show her around London

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mid position

Focusing adverbs (e.g. just, even), adverbs ofindefinite

frequency (e.g. often, always, never) and adverbs of

certainty and degree (e.g probably, obviously, clearly,

completely, quite, almost) all favour this position. Note that

when auxiliary verbs (e.g. is, has, will, was) are used, they

normally go between the auxiliary verb and the main verb:

She's been everywhere - she's even been to Tibet andNepal.

Tom won't be back yet, but I'll just see if Brenda's home.

I'll give her a ring.

My boss often travels to Malaysia and Singapore but I've

never been there.

Have you finished yet? I haven't quite finished. I've

almost finished.

She's obviously a very bossy woman. ~ I completely

agree!

end position

Adverbs of time and definite frequency (e.g. last week,

every year) and adverbs of manner when we want to focus on

how something is done (e.g. well, slowly, evenly) and adverbs

of place (e.g. in the countryside, at the window) usually go

in end position:

I had a tennis lesson last week, but I'm usually travellingin the middle of the month, so I don't have a lesson

every week.

How long have you been here? Not long. We arrived

about five minutes ago.

I chewed the foodslowly because it hadn't been cooked

very well.

She was standing at her window, looking out at her

children who were playing in the garden.

Note that when more than one of this type of adverb is used,

the order in which they are placed is normally: manner, place,

time:

They played happily together in the garden the whole

afternoon.

adverb-adjective

When adverbs modify adjectives, they are placed immediatelybefore them:

We had some really interesting news last night. John's

been offered a job in Australia. He's absolutely

delighted.


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I bought an incredibly expensive dress last week which

fits me perfectly. But John says I shouldn't wear it. He

says it's too tight.

An exception to this rule is enough which is placed after the

adjective or adverb that it modifies:

I got up quite early but not early enough to eat a good

breakfast.

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