Here it is. Adverbs. Bare in mind, adverbs are a huge word class. It's far larger than can be explained in a single post, so, like always, this will focus more on the lower end of the school spectrum, with the depth of learning ramping up as we go on.
Ready? Here we go:
Adverbs
Adverbs describe how an action is done. In Year 2, we want children to be expanding their vocabulary and describing different ways an action is done. Look at this sentence, where the verb (see the last post) is 'jumped':
The dog jumped happily.
The adverb 'happily' describes how the dog jumped. Your Year 2 can also put the adverb before the verb:
The dog happily jumped.
If they want to add extra flavour. In Year 2, adverbs are usually spotted by their '-ly' suffix, but just explaining adverbs like this leads to mistakes in writing (otherwise known as 'misconceptions, because 'mistake' is a big old scary word for 7 year olds):
The dog bigly jumped.
The dog jumped fastly.
Unless you're the current President of the United States, 'bigly' and 'fastly' just look... wrong, don't they? The meaning is clear, but it's off, isn't it? Turns out, bigly is a word, just an old one. Fast, however, already is an adverb, and it can also be an adjective. Look here:
The fast dog jumped.
This describes the noun (dog), so in this context, it's an adjective. Here:
The dog jumped fast.
Sounds a bit like broken English, but is a perfectly correct way of using fast in this sentence. If your child is writing like this though, encourage them to use 'fast' as an adjective and think of another adverb to describe its action, like this:
The fast dog happily jumped.
It gets across the meaning of the speed of the dog as well as further describing its action. Description for days! Your child's teacher will love it!
There are rules for adding -ly to words to make them adverbs. First, the word already needs to be an adjective, like:
quick
The quick fox ran.
Add -ly, and you have:
Quickly, the fox ran.
The fox quickly ran.
The fox ran quickly.
But not:
The quickly fox ran.
Because 'quickly', as a flash new adverb, doesn't belong in the noun phrase. More on this in another post, but briefly, a noun phrase is a group of words, with a noun, which describes that noun. Adverbs, describing the verb, don't belong inside the noun phrase.
Adverbial Phrases
Like adjectival phrases, this is a group of words which describe the verb. Like this:
The fox ran with speed.
A fronted adverbial phrase is an adverbial phrase which goes at the front of a sentence, like this:
With speed, the fox ran.
You need a comma before the fronted adverbial phrase, otherwise the eye of the reader doesn't take a pause:
With speed the fox ran.
And it looks downright weird.
Your Year 3 or Year 4 year old has probably tackled fronted adverbial phrases in school. The trick is the comma - you get the comma, your child is flying. Also, that's all a fronted adverbial phrase is! It's not so hard, just takes practice to get the form right.
Adverbs and adverbial phrases describe a whole range of how, when, how often, where and how much an action can take place!
How
These are emotion words and phrases, describing the verb with how the person or thing felt when they completed the action. These words can be added to by changing the intensity of the verb, so where this:
Angrily, Sarah walked to her room.
Is fine, this:
Angrily, Sarah stomped to her room.
Really gets across the almighty sulk Sarah is in. Likewise, this:
Floating on air, Sarah danced to her room.
Shows just how high of life Sarah is right now.
Try playing word tennis with your child to help build their vocabulary for adverbs and verbs (and adjectives, come to think of it). Say a word, like 'went', and your child has to say another word with the same meaning, like 'walked'. Play until one of you runs out of words and then try another word with a different starting word. It's fun, promise!
When
This describes the time when an action took place. It's good for diary writing:
I went to the park yesterday.
Or for writing which is a bit more fanciful:
I went to the park when the moon was round and fat.
Which is almost definitely describing a witch playing on the swings.
How often
These adverbs describe with what kind of regularity an action happens.
Once a year, the witches of Waimate go to the beach.
I check my phone constantly for news updates.
These kind of adverbs are good of instructional writing:
Stir the sauce regularly.
Check on the the cake occasionally while it's baking.
Where
Where the action takes place, easily enough. There is a big old crossover with prepositions, which describe the place of an object and they're good for geometry at Year 2:
The triangle is above the square.
But don't say they are prepositions to a grammar nazi, unless you have a few hours to kill learning why you're wrong and bad and the actual worst.
You could have:
The party raged on downstairs.
Downstairs is where this party is raging, so it's an adverb.
How much
Different from how often, this is the quantity of the action.
Pour a little sugar into the bowl.
Tells you how much sugar to chuck in.
This is a tricky one to shoehorn into narrative writing, and is best for instructional writing.
There are other adverbs types. But I think that's enough for now. It goes from straightforward to eyewateringly niche fast. This is good:
https://www.twinkl.co.nz/resource/t-l-764--adverb-word-mat
As is this:
https://www.twinkl.co.nz/resource/t-l-4647-fronted-adverbials-word-mat
For building familiarity with these words and terms. Good luck on you and your child's journey into adjectives and please remember - whatever you're doing to educate your child, you're doing great.
Ready? Here we go:
Adverbs
Adverbs describe how an action is done. In Year 2, we want children to be expanding their vocabulary and describing different ways an action is done. Look at this sentence, where the verb (see the last post) is 'jumped':
The dog jumped happily.
The adverb 'happily' describes how the dog jumped. Your Year 2 can also put the adverb before the verb:
The dog happily jumped.
If they want to add extra flavour. In Year 2, adverbs are usually spotted by their '-ly' suffix, but just explaining adverbs like this leads to mistakes in writing (otherwise known as 'misconceptions, because 'mistake' is a big old scary word for 7 year olds):
The dog bigly jumped.
The dog jumped fastly.
Unless you're the current President of the United States, 'bigly' and 'fastly' just look... wrong, don't they? The meaning is clear, but it's off, isn't it? Turns out, bigly is a word, just an old one. Fast, however, already is an adverb, and it can also be an adjective. Look here:
The fast dog jumped.
This describes the noun (dog), so in this context, it's an adjective. Here:
The dog jumped fast.
Sounds a bit like broken English, but is a perfectly correct way of using fast in this sentence. If your child is writing like this though, encourage them to use 'fast' as an adjective and think of another adverb to describe its action, like this:
The fast dog happily jumped.
It gets across the meaning of the speed of the dog as well as further describing its action. Description for days! Your child's teacher will love it!
There are rules for adding -ly to words to make them adverbs. First, the word already needs to be an adjective, like:
quick
The quick fox ran.
Add -ly, and you have:
Quickly, the fox ran.
The fox quickly ran.
The fox ran quickly.
But not:
The quickly fox ran.
Because 'quickly', as a flash new adverb, doesn't belong in the noun phrase. More on this in another post, but briefly, a noun phrase is a group of words, with a noun, which describes that noun. Adverbs, describing the verb, don't belong inside the noun phrase.
Adverbial Phrases
Like adjectival phrases, this is a group of words which describe the verb. Like this:
The fox ran with speed.
A fronted adverbial phrase is an adverbial phrase which goes at the front of a sentence, like this:
With speed, the fox ran.
You need a comma before the fronted adverbial phrase, otherwise the eye of the reader doesn't take a pause:
With speed the fox ran.
And it looks downright weird.
Your Year 3 or Year 4 year old has probably tackled fronted adverbial phrases in school. The trick is the comma - you get the comma, your child is flying. Also, that's all a fronted adverbial phrase is! It's not so hard, just takes practice to get the form right.
Adverbs and adverbial phrases describe a whole range of how, when, how often, where and how much an action can take place!
How
These are emotion words and phrases, describing the verb with how the person or thing felt when they completed the action. These words can be added to by changing the intensity of the verb, so where this:
Angrily, Sarah walked to her room.
Is fine, this:
Angrily, Sarah stomped to her room.
Really gets across the almighty sulk Sarah is in. Likewise, this:
Floating on air, Sarah danced to her room.
Shows just how high of life Sarah is right now.
Try playing word tennis with your child to help build their vocabulary for adverbs and verbs (and adjectives, come to think of it). Say a word, like 'went', and your child has to say another word with the same meaning, like 'walked'. Play until one of you runs out of words and then try another word with a different starting word. It's fun, promise!
When
This describes the time when an action took place. It's good for diary writing:
I went to the park yesterday.
Or for writing which is a bit more fanciful:
I went to the park when the moon was round and fat.
Which is almost definitely describing a witch playing on the swings.
How often
These adverbs describe with what kind of regularity an action happens.
Once a year, the witches of Waimate go to the beach.
I check my phone constantly for news updates.
These kind of adverbs are good of instructional writing:
Stir the sauce regularly.
Check on the the cake occasionally while it's baking.
Where
Where the action takes place, easily enough. There is a big old crossover with prepositions, which describe the place of an object and they're good for geometry at Year 2:
The triangle is above the square.
But don't say they are prepositions to a grammar nazi, unless you have a few hours to kill learning why you're wrong and bad and the actual worst.
You could have:
The party raged on downstairs.
Downstairs is where this party is raging, so it's an adverb.
How much
Different from how often, this is the quantity of the action.
Pour a little sugar into the bowl.
Tells you how much sugar to chuck in.
This is a tricky one to shoehorn into narrative writing, and is best for instructional writing.
There are other adverbs types. But I think that's enough for now. It goes from straightforward to eyewateringly niche fast. This is good:
https://www.twinkl.co.nz/resource/t-l-764--adverb-word-mat
As is this:
https://www.twinkl.co.nz/resource/t-l-4647-fronted-adverbials-word-mat
For building familiarity with these words and terms. Good luck on you and your child's journey into adjectives and please remember - whatever you're doing to educate your child, you're doing great.
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