Adverb

 Once you have a solid understanding of Japanese sentence structure, one of the easiest ways to add a bit more description to your sentences is with the use of adverbs.

 

Most adverbs(※There are some adverbs no) are related to adjectives with a similar meaning, and if you know one, it’s easy to figure out the other. The same is true in English, where many adjectives can be turned into adverbs by changing them slightly to end in “ly” (eg. quickly, easily, quietly etc.).

 

In Japanese, with only a couple of exceptions, we can convert adjectives into adverbs by doing one of two things, depending on the type of adjective we’re dealing with. Here’s how:

 

 

As you can see, i-adjectives can be turned into adverbs by changing the “i” to “ku”, while for na-adjectives, we just replace the “na” with “ni”.

  

 If you are not familiar with i-adjectives and na-adjectives, see this article: Adjectives

 Also, we mustn’t forget one of the most common adjectives, “いい”.

This is also takes the form “yoi”, and when converting to an adverb, this is the form we must use as follows：

Good  →　 well, often

いい / よい → よく

 

As noted above, “yoku” can also mean “often”, and regardless of its meaning, it is usually written in hiragana, not kanji.

 Modifying adjectives

When an adverb is adding a description or emphasis to an adjective or a verb, it will usually appear immediately before the word it’s modifying.

Winters are quite cold.

ふゆ は かなり さむい です。

I read a very interesting book.

わたしはとても おもしろい ほん を よみました。

The next sentence can therefore be expressed in either of the following ways:

He ran to school quickly. / He quickly ran to school.

かれ は  はやくがっこう へ はしりました。

かれ は がっこう へ はやく はしりました

common adverb chart 

adverbs of time yesterday きのう today きょう tomorrow あした now いま then それから later あとで tonight こんや last night さくや this morning けさ next week らいしゅう already もう/すでに recently さいきん soon、immediately すぐに still まだ yet まだ ago まえ   adverbs of place here ここ there そこ over there あそこ everywhere どこでも anywhere どこか nowhere どこにも～ない home うち away はなれて out そとで    adverbs of manner Very/ quite とても/すごく/かなり a bit すこし/ちょっと many たくさん more もっと really ほんとうに Fast, quickly はやく well よく hard はげしく/ いっしょうけんめい slowly ゆっくり hardly ほとんど～ない　(used with negative adjectives/verbs) Not very あまり～ない　(used with negative adjectives/verbs)   almost ほとんど absolutely ぜったいに together いっしょに alone ひとりで   adverbs of frequency always いつも usually たいてい sometimes ときどき occasionally たまに seldom めったに(used with negative adjectives/verbs) rarely まれに never けして(used with negative adjectives/verbs) Not at all ぜんぜん(used with negative adjectives/verbs) Every week Every months Every years まいしゅう まいつき まいとし Exercises  Frequency adverbs Frequenccy adverbs review Frequency adverbs from genki 1 work book