German Adverbs

German Adverbs

An adverb is a word like “slowly” which is usually used in combination with a verb or an adjective. An adverb will give you further information about when, how or in what circumstances something happens.

Most English adverbs end with “ly” (friendly, quickly, really). German adverbs, however, are adjectives which comment on verbs and do not have a change of ending.

An example of German Adverbs:

Habe ich das richtig gemacht? – Did I do that correctly?
Er ist schnell gelaufen. – He walked fast.

There are German adverbs which are formed from a noun and don’t comment on a verb. These adverbs end with –weise.

Let’s look at them closer:

German Adverbs with -weise

There are also adverbs which aren’t formed from either adjectives or nouns.

German Adverbs not formed from adjectives or nouns

Some examples of German adverbs not from a adjective or noun:

Er ist endlich nach Hause gekommen. – He finally came home.
Leider habe ich keine Zeit. – Unfortunately I haven’t got time.
Das Badezimmer ist oben. – The bathroom is upstairs.
Die neue DVD ist ganz unten in der Kiste. – The new DVD is at the bottom of the box.
Wir gehen sofort ins Krankenhaus. – We go immediately to the hospital.

The last category of German adverbs in this blog are adverbs of degree. These adverbs describe “to what extent” something is happening.

Let’s look at them closer:

German Adverbs of degree

Some adverbs of degree examples:

Diese Katze ist besonders süß. – This cat is especially cute.
Auf der Party waren kaum Leute. – There were hardly any people on this party.
Er ist ziemlich betrunken. – He is fairly drunk.
Ich hätte fast den Zug verpasst. – I’ve nearly missed the train.
Das ist äußerst nett von dir. – This is extremly nice of you.