Spanish 3.9. Adverbs

In Spanish, adverbs can modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. They usually answer questions such as how? how often? how long? when? where? etc.

A lot of Spanish adverbs have the ending “-mente,” e.g., “rápidamente” (quickly), “fuertemente” (strongly), etc. This is, more or less, similar to the ending “-ly” in English. Nevertheless, there are many other adverbs and adverbial phrases that do not follow this simple rule. We will attempt to classify the most common adverbs into some categories for easier memorization.

Forming Adverbs in Spanish

Many adverbs in Spanish can be formed by simply adding “-mente” to the feminine singular adjective. Here are some examples:

Adverb in English	Masculine singular adjective	Feminine singular adjective	Adverb in Spanish
slowly	lento	lenta	lentamente
quickly	rápido	rápida	rápidamente
easily	fácil	fácil	fácilmente
quietly	tranquilo	tranquila	tranquilamente
exactly	exacto	exacta	exactamente
normally	normal	normal	normalmente
relatively	relativo	relativa	relativamente
automatically	automático	automática	automáticamente
lightly	ligero	ligera	ligeramente
generally	general	general	generalmente
originally	original	original	originalmente
partially	parcial	parcial	parcialmente
substantially	sustancial	sustancial	sustancialmente
literally	literal	literal	literalmente

A commonly used adverb formed this way is “recientemente,” which means “recently,” and is often abbreviated as “recién.”

Yo recién llegué.	I recently arrived.
el recién nacido	the newly born

Forming Adverbial Phrases

Not all adverbs in Spanish are formed by adding the “-mente” ending, similar to the fact that not all English adverbs are formed by adding “-ly” to the corresponding adjective. Some other ways of forming adverbs, especially adverbs of manner, are summarized with this example:

“de manera” + feminine adjective	Él me habló de manera respetuosa.
“de modo” + masculine adjective	Él me habló de modo respetuoso.
“con” or “sin” + noun	Él me habló con respeto.

All three sentences above can be translated as “He spoke to me respectfully.” The first two form the adverb from the corresponding adjective, while the third forms the adverb from the corresponding noun. The word “con” means “with,” while “sin” means “without.” Thus, “Él me habló sin respeto” is translated as “He spoke to me disrespectfully.”

Next: The Adverbs “Tan,” “Solo,” “También,” “Tampoco,” “Vez,” and “Veces”

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