Ordering multiple adverbs
When you have more than one adverb describing a verb, there is a convention for what order you should write the adverbs in:
Adverbs describing the manner in which something is done, such as ‘reluctantly’, ‘energetically’.
Adverbs describing the place or location that the verb is happening in - ‘in the church’, ‘on the table’.
Adverbs describing the frequency that the verb is happening at - ‘daily’, ‘every hour’.
Adverbs describing the time that the verb is happening at - ‘afternoon’, ‘before school’, ‘during break’.
Adverbs describing the reason or purpose of the verb - ‘to get rich’, ‘to go to sleep’.
Here’s an example sentence, written first without using the rules and then written using the rules:
I ran energetically on the treadmill once a day after work to increase my fitness. |
|
I ran after work once a day to increase my fitness on a treadmill energetically. |
The second sentence just doesn’t sound right, because the adverbs aren’t written in the correct order.
Click here to move on to the next topic: Using infinitive verbs to form adverbs