Adverbs show manner and degree

1. Concept of Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of manner are used to describe how an action is performed.

This type of adverb is commonly used to modify a verb.

Examples:

• Mandy drives carefully.
  → The adverb carefully modifies the verb drives.
• John plays the piano beautifully.
  → The adverb beautifully modifies the verb plays.

2. Position of Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of manner typically modify verbs and can appear in the following positions:

• After the verb, or if the verb has an object, after the object (most common):
  
  • He doesn't know how to write properly. → After the verb write.
  • He doesn't know how to speak Korean properly. → After the object Korean.
• Before the verb, especially if the object is long or to emphasize the adverb:
  
  • He slowly drove his newly bought car to her house. → Between the subject he and the verb drove.
  • Things are slowly getting better.
    → Note: slowly comes before getting but after the auxiliary verb are.
• Before the subject:
  
  • Slowly things began to improve. → Before the subject things.

Note: Some adverbs like well, badly, hard, fast always appear after the predicate.

He did the test well.

3. The Adverb of Manner "So"

There are many ways to describe the manner of an action, but one special adverb of manner is so, meaning "like that" or "in that way":

• Did he tell you so? (Did he tell you like that?)
• They asked me to call them and I did so. (They asked me to call them and I did it.)
• I don't think so. (I don't think that way.)

They asked me to call them and I did so.

4. How to Form Questions About Manner

To ask about the manner of an action, we can use the interrogative adverb how:

• How does John play the piano? (How does John play the piano?)

  → John plays the piano beautifully. (John plays the piano well.)

• How did he do the test? (How did he do the test?)

  → He did the test well. (He did the test well.)

John plays the piano beautifully.