蜜芽传媒

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Learning English - The Flatmates

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Language Point

Quiz

Talk

Comment and viewpoint adverbs

Adverbs are often used to give more information about verbs. In other words, adverbs often tell us how things happen.

Examples:
He swims fast. How does he swim? - fast
She sings beautifully. How does she sing? - beautifully
I opened the door wide. How did I open the door? - wide
She quickly finished her dinner. How did she finish? - quickly

Comment and viewpoint adverbs add information about the speaker's opinion of events. They do not usually give information about how something happened. Comment & viewpoint adverbs often modify the complete sentence, not just the verb.

Compare these sentences:
1. She started singing happily. (adverb of manner)
2. Happily, she started singing. (comment adverb)

In sentence 1, the adverb - happily - gives more information about how she was singing. In sentence 2, the adverb - happily - gives the speaker's comment/opinion of the event. In this case, the speaker thinks that her starting to sing was a happy event.

Comment adverbs usually go at the beginning of a sentence or clause. They can also be placed after the subject, or at the end of the sentence/clause.

Clearly, Paul had no idea what he was doing.
Paul had no idea what he was doing, clearly.
Paul clearly had no idea what he was doing.

When the comment adverb is placed after the subject, commas are often used around the adverb:

Paul, clearly, had no idea what he was doing.

Common viewpoint adverbs (most of these can also function as comment adverbs)
clearly	confidentially	obviously	personally	presumably
seriously	surely	technically	theoretically	truthfully
undoubtedly

Common comment adverbs (most of these can also function as viewpoint adverbs)
bravely	carelessly	certainly	cleverly	definitely
disappointingly	foolishly	fortunately	generously	happily
kindly	luckily	naturally	obviously	rightly
simply	stupidly	thoughtfully	unbelievably	unfortunately
unluckily	wisely	wrongly

traced
discovered where something originally came from, or discovered the course of events which caused something to be in its present state or location

establishment
place of business

reputable
with a good reputation; reliable and trustworthy

supplier
a person or business which provides or supplies goods or services

indeed
'indeed' is used here as an interjection which expresses disbelief, scepticism, irony or doubt

apparently (adv)
according to the information which is available

technically (adv)
according to strict obedience to laws, rules, or principles