How to use adverbs in Spanish?

Adverbs, both in Spanish and in English, are
words that describe a verb (action words) (habla rápidamente ("she speaks quickly")),
an adjective (description words) (es muy inteligente ("she is very intelligent")),
or another adverb (come muy lentamente ("she eats very slowly")).
Adverbs are great additions to our speech because we can use them to add information about an action or other modifiers. For the most part, adverbs in Spanish and in English work in a similar manner. In this post we will focus on some special aspects about adverbs that are different from English: where to place them, how to form them, adverbs of place, and adverbs of time. Are you ready to get started with adverbs, their rules, and how to use them? Follow along!

In Spanish, as in English, we have different types of adverbs which provide different types of information. Here are the types of adverbs in Spanish and how to get some additional information about some of them:

• Adverbs of place — they answer the question “where?”
  

  Voy para allá.

  I'm going over there.

• Adverbs of quantity/amount — they answer the question “how much?”
  

  Tengo bastante.

  I have enough.

• Adverbs of negation — used in negative sentences

  Nunca te dirán la verdad.

  They will never tell you the truth.

• Relative adverbs — used to link relative clauses

  Esta es la casa donde vivió Frida Kahlo.

  This is the house where Frida Kahlo lived.

• Adverbs of time — they answer the question “when?”

  ¿Por qué llegas hasta ahora?

  Why are you arriving now?

• Adverbs of manner — they answer the question “how?”

  Mi abuelita camina muy lentamente.

  My grandma walks very slowly.

• Interrogative adverbs — used as question words

  ¿Cómo lo hiciste?

  How did you do it?

• Adverbs of affirmation — they add strength or soften statements

  Sí te ayudé.

  I did help you.

• Adverbs of doubt — used to add uncertainty
  

  Quizás nadie se dio cuenta.

  Maybe nobody noticed.

For more, check out this list of Spanish adverbs!

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• When we use adverbs to describe verbs, we will place them after the verb.

  La chica corrió rápidamente por el parque.

  The girl ran quickly through the park.

• If the adverb is describing an adjective or another adverb, we will put it before those words.

  Estoy extremadamente emocionada porque mañana salgo para España.

  I am extremely excited because tomorrow I leave for Spain.

  Ella habla español muy bien.

  She speaks Spanish very well.

  muy is qualifying bien.

• In Spanish, adverbs can’t be placed between two verbs or between auxiliary verbs and main verbs. For example, in English, we could say “I have always eaten dinner at 6 pm.” In Spanish, we can’t split the auxiliary (have) from the second part of the verb (eaten). In order to build this, we say:

  Yo siempre he comido la cena a las 6 pm.

  In English we would say “I have not been to Spain.” However, In Spanish, we say:

  Yo no he visitado España.

In Spanish, we use adjectives as the “starting point” to build adverbs of manner (how?). You can easily identify them in English because they end in -ly and in Spanish because they end in -mente. In order to build them, follow these steps:

• Take the feminine form of an adjective.
  completo ("complete")→ completa (feminine version)

• Attach -mente at the end.
  completamente ("completely")

As an additional little rule, if you find yourself using multiple adverbs one after the other, leave all of the first few in the feminine form (or if it ends with -e or consonant, its original form), and add the -mente only to the last one. For example:

Finally, if the adjective originally has an accent, you keep it when you build the adverb. For example:

Now let's switch gears and talk about adverbs of place. Ready?

In English, we express distance as “here” if something is close to the speaker or “there” if it is far. In Spanish, we have three different “levels” of how far away something is: aquí ("here"), ahí ("there"), allá ("over there"). Check out the following drawing to get a better idea:

Now, let’s get a little more in depth with these adverbs of place:

• Aquí ("here") is used to talk about a specific location near the person speaking. If you are referring to time, aquí ("here") implies a specific starting point, like “right now.” For example:

  Location:

  Estos zapatos rojos aquí están muy bonitos. ¿Qué piensas?

  These red shoes here are very pretty. What do you think?

  Time:

  De aquí en adelante espero que me digas a qué hora vas a llegar a la casa, por favor.

  From here on out I hope you tell me at what time you will arrive home, please.

  

• Did you notice acá ("here") on the diagram? Basically, both acá and aquí mean "here," but while aquí is used to talk about "here" as a place, acá is used to talk about “here” with a notion of movement. For example:

  Example with aquí	Example with acá
  Los libros están aquí. The books are here. This example is for the place/location of the books!	Trae los libros acá. Bring the books here. In this one, the books need to move from “there” to “here” and we are using a verb of movement: traer ("to bring")

• Ahí ("there") is used to talk about things that are close, but not easily within the reach of the person speaking. Conversely, it refers to something close to the listener or audience as you can see on the diagram above. For example:

  Oye, ¿podrías pasarme esa gorra ahí?

  Hey, could you hand me that hat there?

  (The hat is near, but I can’t reach it! The listener is way closer than me!)

• Allá ("over there") will refer to things or people that are far away from the speaker (usually out of sight). For example:

  La casa de José queda allá por el centro. Está como a media hora de aquí.

  José’s house is over there near downtown. It’s about half an hour from here

Adverbs of place are often paired with Spanish demonstrative adjectives ("this,” “that,” “those,” etc). As a reminder, you can check out our post to get a refresher on how to use them!

Adverbs of time, as we mentioned in the introduction, talk about time, duration, or frequency of something. They will often answer questions, such as “how long?,” “when?,” etc. In Spanish, there are a few adverbs of time that are especially challenging for language learners. Here, we will focus on the following adverbs of time:

• Ya ("already") is an adverb that changes meaning depending on the tense of the sentence. In the past, it indicates that something was done, similar to the use of “already” in English. If used with the present, it means “right now,” and when used in the future it can mean “eventually.” For example:

  Verb Tense	Example
  Past	Hay que apurarnos, la película ya comenzó. We need to hurry, the movie has already started.
  Present	Dame ya la respuesta, por favor. Give me the answer right now, please.
  Future	Ellos ya te dirán si pueden ir. They will eventually tell you if they can go.

  When we say ya no, however, it means something is no longer valid or does not exist at that moment. In English, ya no would be similar to "not anymore" or "no longer."

  Cuando me preguntaron cómo me iba con el ballet, les respondí que ya no lo practico.

  When they asked me how ballet was going, I answered that I do not practice it anymore.

  Tip

  Ya is often used to emphasize a statement. In English, the equivalent would be to add an emphatic tone to the sentence.

  ¡Ya sé!

  I know!

  ¡Ya casi termino!

  I’m almost done!

  ¡Ya voy!

  I'm coming!

• Todavía ("still, yet") implies the continuation of something, it implies something has been happening until now.
  

  Carla dijo que su bebé todavía estaba durmiendo y por eso no puede venir.

  Carla said her baby was still sleeping (until now) and that’s why she is not coming.

  When we say todavía no, it implies something has not been done up until a certain point.

  Toqué la puerta, pero todavía no abren.

  I knocked on the door, but they have not opened yet.

• Aún ("still, yet") is very similar to todavía. They can be used interchangeably. The same happens with aún no. Look at the same examples from above, but with aún ("still, yet"):
  

  Carla dijo que su bebé aún estaba durmiendo y por eso no puede venir.

  Carla said her baby was still sleeping (until now) and that’s why she is not coming.

  Toqué la puerta, pero aún no abren.

  I knocked on the door, but they have not opened yet.

  Tip

  Aun without an accent means "even." It's interchangeable with incluso ("even").

  Aun los mejores estudiantes sacaron mala nota.

  Even the best students got a bad grade.

Intensifiers are adverbs that refer to quantity or degree. Here are a few that are challenging to Spanish learners.

While there are a lot of similarities between adverbs in English and adverbs in Spanish, there are also differences. Here are some of the items that differ between the two languages:

• Placement rules:

  • Adverbs are placed after the verbs they describe.

  • Adverbs go before adjectives or adverbs they describe.

  • We do not place adverbs between verbs or between auxiliary verbs and main verbs.

• Adverbs of manner:

  Adverbs of manner that end in -ly in English, end in -mente in Spanish.

• The three degrees of distance:

  While in English we have “here” and “there” to talk about distance from the speaker, in Spanish we have three different levels of distance: aquí/acá ("here"), ahí ("there"), and allá ("over there").

• Challenging adverbs of time:

  • Ya ("already") changes meaning depending on the tense of the sentence. It can mean “already,” “now,” or “eventually.” In the negative, it means something is no longer valid or does not exist at that moment, similar to “not anymore.”

  • Todavía and aún ("still, yet") imply the continuation of something, that something has been happening until now. Todavía no or aún no imply something has not been done up until a certain point.

  • Use entonces to talk about "then" as "at that point in time."

  • Luego ("then"), is used with a series of actions, to say "later" or "next."

• Intensifiers:

  • Muy ("very") vs mucho ("a lot")

    • Muy is used to intensify the qualities offered by either an adjective or an adverb.

    • Mucho is used to talk about amounts. We use it after verbs or before comparatives.

  • Sí ("yes") vs si ("if")

    • Sí ("yes") (with an accent!) is an adverb that implies affirmation, agreement.

    • Si ("if") (without an accent) is a conjunction that introduces conditional statements (if, then) and can intensify the following statement.

  • Bien ("very, quite, well") is invariable and can modify a verb, an adjective, and also certain adverbs.

If you feel ready to practice with these new concepts, here are some activities for you to get started!