Place of an adverb in an English sentence

Since English can be safely called the language of context, the use of certain words in sentences should be more careful, since their formulation will largely depend on the words that surround them. 

Role in the sentence 

In a sentence, the adverb is most often a circumstance, but in English they are not as common as in Russian. That is why in a sentence built in English, an adverb can also be a definition, an addition, or even a subordinating conjunction. 

Where to put 

So, after we figured out what an adverb is and what it is in a sentence, let's see where to put it. Since, as we have already said, its setting will depend on the rest of the words in the sentence, let's consider its place with examples. 

1. Most often, the adverb is a temporary indicator, which means it will be at the very beginning, or at the very end of the sentence.  

• I had a lot of work yesterday, so I couldn’t go home early.  

• Lately I’ve heard the news about what happened with my old friend.  

2. After the auxiliary verb, indicating the frequency of the action  

• She usually goes on holiday to her parents’ house by the sea.  

• He always buys a lot of eggs, because he loves baking.  

3. The adverb, acting as an introductory word, will be at the very beginning and separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma.  

• Fortunately, we’ve managed the situation on our own. 
• Truthfully speaking, she was going to spoil us the whole movie, but we stopped her.  

4. Adverbs describing the mode of action are placed at the end of the sentence or break off a pair of auxiliary and main verbs. 

• The robber opened our window quietly.  
• She was slowly mixing the eggs with sugar and flour.  

5. When we talk about something describing its degree, we will put the adverb before the adjective, after the subject and auxiliary verb.  

• I am quite sure that I put my wallet in my bag this morning.  

6. There are also cases of very, very strongly emotional statements, when there are more adverbs and adjectives. There may be two, three, or more. What to do in this case? Put them one after the other according to the scheme 

action - place – time 

I have been cooking passionately in the kitchen for the whole evening. 

If one of the verbs of motion (go, leave, come) is present in the sentence, the order changes slightly to 

place - action - time 

The stealer was leaving the bus very fast yesterday.  

 

It's actually quite easy to remember where to put an adverb in English sentence. Another thing is to remember their order. When in doubt, it is better to put the adverb at the very beginning of the sentence, or, conversely, at the end. Most often they are placed exactly there, which means that if you do not have enough knowledge, then the probability of hitting will be exactly 50 percent. 

This does not mean that you can arrange adverbs at random, on the contrary, it shows that by remembering its correct position you will make a good impression on your English-speaking interlocutor.