Adverbs in German Grammar (2023)

FAQs

What is an adverb sentence with enough? ›

We use enough as an adverb directly after an adjective or directly after another adverb: Is this box big enough for all those books? Strangely enough, no one seemed to notice that Boris was in his pyjamas.

Adverbs in German Sentence Structure

When an adverb is placed in the beginning of the sentence, the word order changes. The verb then comes before the subject, and the sentence has the following structure: adverb + conjugated verb + subject + rest of the sentence.

Definition: An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs answer the questions when, where, how, and to what extent (how much or how long).

Adverbs of manner modify verbs to tell us the how.

[M] [T] He had barely enough to eat. [M] [T] She isn't good enough for him. [M] [T] He is old enough to drive a car. [M] [T] He is old enough to travel alone.

The words "too", "enough", "very", and "extremely" are examples of adverbs of degree.

In German the order must always follow the 'Time, Manner, Place' (TMP) rule if any or all of these things are included in the sentence, even if some aspects are missing, eg time and manner, but no place; or time and place, but no manner.

In German, adverbs can come in different places in a sentence, but as a general rule they are placed close to the word to which they refer. Adverbs of time often come first in the sentence, but this is not fixed. Morgen gehen wir ins Theater OR:Wir gehen morgen ins Theater. We're going to the theatre tomorrow.

Most German adverbs are formed from adjectives or nouns and are used to comment on verbs. In fact, they are generally just adjectives used as adverbs. And the good news is that unlike adjectives, they do not change by adding different endings. Habe ich das richtig gehört?

What are 10 examples of adverbs? ›

Quickly, slowly, yesterday, last week, here, there, today, daily, never, rarely, extremely, annually, etc., are some examples of adverbs.

Like an adverb, an adverbial phrase will also answer questions such as 'when', 'where', 'why', 'how' and 'how often'. An adverbial phrase modifies or provides extra information about a verb, a phrase, an adjective or another adverb in the sentence.

An adverb of frequency is exactly what it sounds like – an adverb of time. Adverbs of frequency always describe how often something occurs, either in definite or indefinite terms. An adverb that describes definite frequency is one such as weekly, daily, or yearly.

enough comes after adjectives and adverbs. I'm not tall enough to reach the top shelf. Your marks are good enough to study engineering at university. I couldn't write quickly enough and I ran out of time.

Adverb I couldn't run fast enough to catch up with her. She's old enough to know better. Are you rich enough to retire? That's good enough for me.

Enough is an adjective that describes something that is adequate for an intended purpose. Enough is also used as an adverb to mean sufficiently or fully. Enough also has senses as a pronoun and an interjection.

The adverb form of ample is amply, meaning sufficiently or abundantly, as in He gave amply to charity.

Two types of 'enough': sufficiency as minimum and maximum.

Is it quickly enough or quick enough? ›

Quick is an adjective, so you should use it to modify nouns. Quickly is an adverb, so you should use it to modify verbs.

In a standard sentence in BOTH English AND German, the subject noun (i.e. nominative case) comes first, followed by the finite (a.k.a. conjugated) verb. All other information (e.g. accusative case, dative case, adverbs, etc.)

Adverbs of quantity are used to tell us 'how much' or 'how many' of something there is. Some of the most used ones are sehr (very, much), kaum (barely), viel (a lot), wenig (a little), extreme (extremely), gar nicht (not at all), and übermäßig (excessively).

There are five main adverbial conjunctions that all basically mean “therefore”, “that's why” or “hence” in German. They are: “daher”, “darum”, “deshalb”, “deswegen” and “somit”.

Remember, the order of adverbs is manner, place, frequency, time, and purpose. As we already noted, it is unusual to find several adverbs consecutively modifying the same word.

Common German Adverbs. Adverbs can be roughly divided into these four groups: Lokaladverbien (locative adverbs), Temporaladverbien (temporal adverbs), Modaladverbien (adverbs of manner) and Kausaladverbien (causal adverbs).

When there is more than one adverb in a sentence describing a verb, they usually go in this order: manner, place (location), frequency, time, reason/purpose. It is uncommon to use all five types of adverbs to modify the same word. If a sentence uses two or more adverbs, it is good to follow this order to sound natural.

Most adverbs are formed by adding -ly to the end of the related adjective. Exceptionally, words which end in -ble drop off the -e before -ly is added. So do the words true and due.

Adverbs often have the form of an adjective + -ly. He was calm when I told him. He behaved calmly. That was a beautiful presentation, Carla.

What are the mistakes in the use of adverbs? ›

Adverbs of manner usually go in the end-position. Incorrect: The room is enough spacious for us. Correct: The room is spacious enough for us. The adverb enough goes after the adjective or adverb it modifies.

Agreement errors, where the adverb does not agree with the subject or verb in a sentence. For Example: She swims slowly in the pool. (The adverb slowly does not agree with the subject she, which is incorrect.)

Because of their distinctive endings, these adverbs are known as -LY ADVERBS. However, by no means all adverbs end in -ly. Note also that some adjectives also end in -ly, including costly, deadly, friendly, kindly, likely, lively, manly, and timely. The modifying words very and extremely are themselves adverbs.

They usually go in end position. They sometimes go in mid position if the adverb is not the most important part of the clause or if the object is very long. She ate quickly.

abnormally absentmindedly accidentally actually adventurously afterwards almost always annually anxiously arrogantly awkwardly bashfully beautifully bitterly bleakly blindly blissfully boastfully boldly bravely briefly brightly briskly broadly busily calmly carefully carelessly cautiously certainly cheerfully clearly ...

The interrogative adverbs why, where, how, & when are placed at the beginning of a question. These questions can be answered with a sentence or a prepositional phrase.

Adverbs are words that answer the questions when, where, and how, for example, recently, never, below, slowly, frankly. Typically, adverbs end in -ly though there are a few adjectives that take this ending too, such as lovely, friendly, lonely. Adverbs can be used to modify an adjective or an entire sentence.

There are six main adverbs of frequency that we use in English: always, usually (or normally), often, sometimes, rarely, and never.

What kind of adverb is never? ›

Adverbs of frequency: Sometimes, often, usually, frequently, seldom, daily, again and again, generally, occasionally, never, etc.

Always is an adverb.

Adverb of degree — Adverbs of degree are those which answer to the question, how much?

never (adverb) never–ending (adjective) never–never land (noun)

Adverb I couldn't run fast enough to catch up with her. She's old enough to know better. Are you rich enough to retire? That's good enough for me.

enough comes after adjectives and adverbs. I'm not tall enough to reach the top shelf. Your marks are good enough to study engineering at university. I couldn't write quickly enough and I ran out of time.

She had just enough money to pay for her bus ticket.

Enough is an adjective that describes something that is adequate for an intended purpose. Enough is also used as an adverb to mean sufficiently or fully.

What is the other meaning of enough? ›

Some common synonyms of enough are adequate, competent, and sufficient. While all these words mean "being what is necessary or desirable," enough is less exact in suggestion than sufficient.

I don't have enough time to get everything done. I think the test was too difficult. There is too much salt in this soup!

Enough goes AFTER the adjective. Now, you may have noticed after large enough we have the preposition FOR + students. After enough, we can have for + person / people. Let's look at some more examples of this.

abnormally absentmindedly accidentally actually adventurously afterwards almost always annually anxiously arrogantly awkwardly bashfully beautifully bitterly bleakly blindly blissfully boastfully boldly bravely briefly brightly briskly broadly busily calmly carefully carelessly cautiously certainly cheerfully clearly ...

Beginning of the sentence

Adverbs placed at the beginning of the clause are often separated by a comma. The comma is obligatory after however, in fact, therefore, nevertheless, moreover, furthermore, and still. (1) Usually the summer is hot and humid. (2) Sometimes she wishes it was not so hot.

something you say to tell someone that you understand what they have said and that there is no need to say any more: "Someone has to explain the situation to her." "Enough said." "There are some, er, objections to her appointment." "Oh yes, enough said."