Adverbs in English - Shortcut Rules

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Friends, in today's post we shall discuss about the rules on Adverbs along with some Adverb Examples. 

What are Adverbs?

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb. Lets try to understand this with a small example.

Adverb Example: 

Sunaina walks gracefully (The word 'gracefully' is an adverb. It modifies the verb 'to walk'.)

Now lets have a look at some important rules of Adverbs.

Rule 1 : The adverbs 'too much' is used with nouns and 'much too' is used with adjectives.

• Too much pain / Too much insincerity (Nouns)
• Much too painful / much too careless (Adjectives)
  

Examples :

• His failure is too much painful for me ☓
• His failure is much too painful for me  ✔

• His wife's rude behavior gives him much too pain ☓
• His wife's rude behavior gives him too much pain ✔

Rule 2 : Before the word 'Enough' an adjective under positive form should be used.

• He is more intelligent enough to follow you. ☓
• He is intelligent enough to follow you. ✔

• She is enough lucky to get the job. ☓
• She lucky enough to get the job. ✔

Rule 3 : The adverb quite ('quite means perfectly/ completely) should not be used with the adjective 'Handsome'.

• He is quite handsome. ☓
• He is very handsome. ✔

Rule 4 : Late / Lately. The adverb 'late' indicates time and lately means recently.

• He was punished for coming lately. ☓
• He was punished for coming late.  ✔

Rule 5 : When we begin a sentence with 'seldom / never / hardly / rarely / scarcely / barely  / neither / never, the rule of inversion should be applied (i.e.,) an auxiliary verb is used before the subject.

• Hardly he goes to school. ☓
• Hardly does he go to school. ✔

• Seldom I got to films. ☓
• Seldom do I got to films. ✔

• No sooner the school bell rings than all the boys go to their class rooms. ☓
• No sooner does the school bell ring, than all the boys go to their class rooms.

After Only + adverbial expression.

• Only by working hard, he got success. ☓
• Only by working hard, did he get success. ✔

Not only but also

• Not only she reads but also she writes. ☓
• Not only does she read but also writes. ✔

Rule 6 : The adverbial phrase 'No less than' should be used with uncountable nouns whereas 'No fewer than' is used with countable nouns.

• There were no less than forty people who were killed in the accident. ☓
• No fewer than forty people were killed in accident. ✔

Rule 7 : The adverb (As) is not used after call and consider.

• He called me as a fool ☓
• He called me a fool. ✔

• I always consider him as my brother. ☓
• I always consider him my brother. ✔

Rule 8 : The derived adjectives such as interested / pleased / satisfied / delighted are used with 'much' but not 'very'.

• I am very interested to play cricket. ☓
• I am much interested to play cricket. ✔

Rule 9 : The adverb 'very' is used with positive adjectives and 'much' with comparative adjective forms.

• He is very clever to understand it. ✔
• He is much clever to understand it. ☓

Rule 10 : 'Very much' should be used with comparative forms.

• It is very much better to stay here tonight. ✔