What is an Adverb?

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man ran quickly). In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the verb that it modifies is in italics.

• John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)
• Afterwards she smoked a cigarette. (When did she smoke?)
• Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)

But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works very well). Look at these examples:

• Modify an adjective:
  - He is really handsome. (How handsome is he?)
  - That was extremely kind of you.
  
  
• Modify another adverb:
  - She drives incredibly slowly. (How slowly does she drive?)
  - He drives extremely fast.