The Adverb: General information

stasya | 10.02.2012 | 1

The adverb is an unchangable part of speech that defines means of action, state or other means.

Unlike other independent parts of speech (e.g. the noun or adjective) the adverb does not have genders, declensions, singular or plural forms.

Adverbs are created by changing other parts of speech like nouns, adjectives and pronouns.

For example:

ніч (night) — вночі (at night): noun — adverb

швидкий (quick) — швидко (quickly): adjective — adverb

мій (my) — по-моєму (roughly means "as for me"): pronoun — adverb

Adverbs can be divided in two main groups:

  1. Adverbs of quality, quantity and manner.

  2. Adverbs of time, place, intention and cause.

Adverbs of quality, quantity and manner

Adverbs of quality and manner: how?

Adverbs of quality and most of adverbs of manner end with , and are created by adding suffixes , to the stem of adjectives.

For example:

гарний (beautiful) — гарно (beautifully)

Він написав гарний вірш. — He has written (wrote) a beautiful poem.

Він гарно пише вірші. — He writes poems beautifully.

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дешевий (cheap) — дешево (cheaply)

Ця машина дуже дешева. — This car is very cheap.

Ця машина коштує дуже дешево. — This car costs very cheaply.

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Adverbs of quality can have comparative and superlative degrees of comparison which have simple and hard forms. Similar to adjectives I recommend to use the hard form.

Comparative degree:

Superlative degree:

Here are some useful adverbs:

добре — well

погано — badly

швидко — quickly

повільно — slowly

легко — easily

складно — difficult

гарно — beautifully

напам'ять — by heart

Adverbs of quantity: how many? how much?

By their meaning they are quite similar to English adverbs of degree.

For example:

дуже — very

занадто — too

багато — many, much, a lot

забагато — too many, too much

трохи — few, little, a bit

мало — few, little

замало — very few, very little

You can use some of these adverbs to increase or decrease the meaning of other adverbs (as well as comparative ones):

Вона дуже швидко бігає. — She runs very fast.

Він знає про цей фільм трохи більше ніж ти. — He knows about this movie a bit more than you.

Чи не могли б ви говорити трохи тихіше? — Would you mind talking a bit quiter?

Adverbs of time, place, intention and cause

Adverbs of time: when?

These describe when an action takes place.

 Here are some useful adverbs:

 

сьогодні — today

вчора — yesterday

завтра — tomorrow

зараз, тепер — now

скоро — soon

рано — early

пізно — late

зранку — in the morning

вдень — in the afternoon

ввечері — in the evening

вночі — at night

Adverbs of place: where?

These describe where an action takes place.

Here are some useful adverbs:

 

тут — here

там — there

де — where

близько, поблизу — near

далеко — far

зверху — above

знизу — under

Adverbs of intention and cause: why? what for?

Here are some useful adverbs:

 

навмисне, навмисно — intentionally

наперекір — contrary

випадково, ненароком — accidentally

згарячу, зопалу — in warm blood

спросоння — half asleep

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