Adverbforming

Adverbforming is the study and practice of creating adverbs within a language. It encompasses various morphological processes—such as affixation, conversion, and compounding—as well as periphrasis and, in some cases, suppletion. Adverbs typically modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs and express manner, time, frequency, degree, or place.

In English, the most productive path is suffixation: many adjectives form adverbs with the suffix -ly (quick → quickly, slow → slowly). English also has irregular adverbs, such as well (from good) and hard, where the adverb form remains the same as the adjective. Some adverbs are built without a suffix (fast, late, today) or arise by conversion from adjectives to adverbs (the train runs fast). Directional adverbs often use -ward or -wise (homeward, forward, clockwise). Other adverbs come from noun or phrase formations, such as “in time” or “on foot.” Degrees can be expressed with adverbs such as very, rather, or extremely, which select or scale the impact of another word.

Cross-linguistically, adverbformation varies widely. Romance languages commonly form adverbs by adding -mente to the feminine form of an adjective (lentement in French from lent; lentamente in Italian; rápidamente in Spanish uses a different pattern but serves a similar function). German often uses adjectives directly as adverbs, while some adverbs are formed with endings like -erweise or -lich. Slavic languages frequently create adverbs from adjectives with suffixes such as -o or -e in Russian and related dialects. Adverb formation thus reflects each language’s morphology and historical development.

See also: adverb, derivation, morphology, syntax.