Adverbs

NOTES

(by DuoItalian)

Adverbs (avverbi) are words that modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. They are similar to adjectives, but instead say something about a verb or an adjective instead of a noun.

They often answer the question: come? (how?), quando? (when?), or dove? (where?).

• Giuseppe corre lentamente. (Giuseppe runs slowly.)
• Maria arriva tardi. (Maria arrives late.)
• Sophia è famosa ovunque. (Sophia is famous everywhere.)

In English, adverbs are often formed by adding the suffix -ly to adjectives (slowly, softly, surely).  In Italian, many adverbs are formed by adding the ending -mente (similarly to the aforementioned English suffix -ly) to the feminine form of the adjective in one of the following ways:

When the adjective ends in -o with we change it to -a.

• lento (slow) → lenta + mente = lentamente (slowly)
• completo (complete) → completa + mente = completamente (completely)

When the adjective ends in -e we leave it alone.

• breve (short) → breve + mente = brevemente (shortly)
  

If the adjective ends in -le or -re, the -e is dropped before adding the suffix -mente.

• gentile (kind) → gentil + mente = gentilmente (kindly)
• regolare (regular) → regolar + mente = regolarmente (regularly)

ANCHE vs PURE
While there are subtle differences between anche and pure, the former is more often used in everyday conversation. The latter being used to occasionally express emphasis.

• Sono andata anche lá. (I went there too.)
• Sono andata pure lá. (I even went there.)

SOLO vs SOLTANTO
When used as an adverb, these two words (meaning “only”) are interchangeable. However, solo can additionally be used as an adjective (meaning “alone”).

MOLTO
The Italian “molto” has multiple uses.

As an ADVERB (a lot, much, very much, a great deal, very), the ending stays the same and it is always placed AFTER a verb, BEFORE an adjective, or BEFORE another adverb.

• Le fregola sono molto buone. (The strawberries are very good.)
• Erano molto contenti di aspettare. (They were very content to wait.)

As an ADJECTIVE (a great deal of, a lot of, lots of, much, many), it conforms to gender and number (molto, molti, molta, molte) and is always placed BEFORE a noun.

• Lei ha molte farfalle. (She has a lot of butterflies.)
• Ho incontrato molti persone durante il mio viaggio. (I met many people during my trip.)

TIP: The adverbs sopra (above) and sotto (under) are additionally used when referencing the “upstairs” (di sopra) and “downstairs” (di sotto) of a house, building, etc.

VOCABULARY

(from Duolingo)

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