English Grammar and Composition chapter 6: More about Adverbs

Unit Six

More about Adverbs

Lesson 1: Introducing Adverbs

A. Read the following passage and notice the words in italics:

Mashrafi runs fast. He knows how to prepare for a match. He is taking preparations for the upcoming world cup tournament. He is taking a very careful preparation. Other teammates have joined the team here. They are going to sit together with the coach. They will decide on some regulations for themselves tonight. They are always very optimistic.

Can you guess what their functions are?

These words modify either the verb, or the adjective/adverb they are with.

These words are adverbs.

Activity:

Identify functions of the adverbs in italics in the passage and say what questions they answer. One is done for you:

# ‘fast’ modifies the verb ‘runs’; (It answers the question ‘how’)

Adverbs modify verbs by telling how, when, where, or to what extent the action takes place.

Note:

• An adverb is a modifying word.
• An adverb mainly modifies a verb. But an adverb also modifies an adjective or an adverb.

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B. Identify the adverbs in the following sentences and say which words they modify:

a. A wagon train that was very long started out from Laksam. b. The trail through the mountains was fairly hazardous. c. Bangladesh is a densely populated country. d. The students are inside. e. She will go to Rajshahi tomorrow. f. He will join the party tonight. g. Uncle came home yesterday. h. Ahsanullah Master fought against the drug smugglers bravely. i. Salma is studying hard for her examination. j. The doctor sometimes stays up all night.

Lesson 2: Types of Adverbs

A. Read the following sentences and see what the words in italics modify and how:

Tanbin has decorated his reading room beautifully. He painted the wall well. His father highly praised his artistic work.

Here the adverbs modify verbs to tell us how a thing is done.

These types of words that state how a thing is done are known as adverbs of manner.

In most cases, adverbs of manner are formed by adding ‘ly’ to adjectives.

Some examples are given below:

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B. Make five sentences using any five of these adverbs:

C. Read the following sentences and see what the words in italics modify and how:

Sharafi is a meritorious student. He goes to school regularly. He prepares his lessons daily. He reaches his school early. He never comes to school late. He is preparing for a debate competition today.

All these adverbs modify certain verbs and describe ‘when’ an action takes place.

Note :

• The adverbs which state when the action of the verb is done are adverbs of time.
• Adverbs of time are always related with ‘time’.

D. Use the following adverbs of time in the box to fill in the blanks:

later, occasionally, yesterday, often, in 1932

I met Abdul Matin Siddiqui ___. He was born . He had his primary education in the mid- thirties of the last century. _____ he came to Dhaka. He wrote poems ______ . His elder brother _____ inspired him.

E. Read the following sentences and see what the words in italics modify and how:

Sakib is in abroad. He is taking part in a tournament there. His team mateTamim is also there for medical treatment. But other members of the team have started their practice session in Dhaka. Though they are here, they will also go to Australia eventually.

What do the words in italics do?

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They tell where the action of the verb takes place.

The adverbs that state where things happen are adverbs of place.

F. Use the following adverbs of place in the box to fill in the blanks:

outside, back, around, nearby, everywhere, inside, there, in

John looked ________ but he couldn't see the monkey. I searched __________ I could think of. I was going __________ to camp. John built a house ________. He took the child _____. I found the monkey ___________ the camp. John reached __________ . The monkey was sitting beside a snake there. Suddenly an elephant stepped ___ .

G. Read the following sentences and consider what the words in italics modify and how:

Mushi participated in the world cup cricket tournament thrice. He had always been sincere. In his batting he sent the ball to the boundary frequently. He seldom dropped catches. In the beginning, he often made mistakes. But he always learnt from mistakes.

The words in italics tell us how often something happens.

The adverbs which state how often things happen are adverbs of frequency.

H. Use each of the following adverbs in a sentence and say which word it modifies. One is done for you:

He is reading now at school.

Here ‘now’ modifies the verb ‘reading’.

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a. now b. soon c. then d. hardly e. politely f. immediately g. quietly h. fairly i. fast j. fluently

J. Look at the following picture and then complete the passage below it using the adverbs given in the box:

Figure

Description: Three people ride an old motorbike: one man steers at the front, a second sits in the middle and a third sits at the back on the rear carrier.

It was 1971. We can --------- forget those days of war. Maya was ----------- serious about his purpose. He had two other companions. They rode from Gendaria. Three sat on the bike keeping the LMG in between them. They were moving towards the pre decided spot ----------- , though they were pretending to be feeble and helpless with their shabby wearing. One of them was holding a fish market bag. The bike was an old one. It was not moving --------- fast. Somehow they kept their ultimate goal of urgency in their pretension. One,

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two Pakistani military truck passed by --------------. They were facing death ----------; three Pakistani soldiers were taking tea ------------. But they did not notice Maya’s bike ----------. Even then they did not ride ---------- . At Joykali Mandir crossing a street vendor handed over to them a small packet in the fish bag -------------. One of them sitting on the bike opened the packet and got three ‘grenades’. His pulse increased-------- . But Maya was ------------- calm. He was in the middle. He was holding the arms -------- . He was trying to remember the directions -------------------. He was observing his surroundings---------- . They were moving --------------- then. They moved past Baitul Mukarram Mosque ------------------. In front of G.P.O. there were some Pakistani soldiers, they were five in number as Maya could count ------------ . No sooner had their bike reached a spot opposite to the Pak soldiers than Maya got down from the bike and opened fire upon the Pakistani soldiers. One of the soldiers was saying, “Mukut aya……” (Meaning Muktis have come.) All the Pak soldiers were killed -------------. Maya and others left the spot ----------.

accurately unusually strongly rapidly secretly hardly suddenly very fearlessly safely then there well faster carefully slowly easily quickly quite