Stephen King is supposed to have said, ‘The road to hell is paved with adverbs.’ It maybe true that said road is indeed paved with adverbs but they need not make life hell for students of English.
Adverbs don’t produce too many common mistakes for ESL students. The most common mistake is using adjectives instead of adverbs. Take a look at Adjectives or Adverbs for an easy way to remember which one to use. The page Adverbs will then tell you what adverbs do.
The correct use of very much is covered in two pages: Very much and Very much before an adjective. A mistake that has increased a lot in recent years is covered in Once not one time. Adverbs can be found at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of sentences. This page covers The Position of still, already, just and yet. The use of hyphens with adverbs causes a lot of confusion. The pages Never use hyphens with very nor adverbs ending in -ly and How to use hyphens with adverbs not ending in -ly will give you some simple rules to follow. The page After stative verbs we use adjectives not adverbs will explain to you why we use adjectives not adverbs with this type of verb.
Good and Well, Hardly and Hard are often confused as are Normal and Normally. My simple definitions should clarify things for you.
The are two important types of adverbs which I suggest you study beyond this website. The page about Gradable Adverbs and the page about Conjunctive Adverbs will give you a brief introduction to get you started.
After all that you can try the Adverbs Quiz.
