Japanese Adverbs

Last time, you learned relative clauses in order to give nouns more contexts. Thereby, you can express “Bob will study Japanese” by means of a noun clause: 日に本ほん語ごを勉べん強きょうするボブ (Bob who will study Japanese). Then, what should you do if you’d like to say “Bob will study Japanese very hard?” In this lesson, you will learn how to use Japanese adverbs.

Explanation for How Japanese Adverbs Work

Adverbs basically modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Unlike English adverbs, Japanese ones can be placed anywhere in sentences if they appear before verbs. Let’s go over how it works for each function.

Adverbs of Manner

When you swim in the sea, you can swim fast, slowly, well, very hard, etc. These types of adverbs give such contexts and thus they are generally used for verbs.

In the above example, “一いっ生しょう懸命けんめい　: very hard” modifies “勉べん強きょうする: to study.” Regardless of where the adverb is placed, the meaning won’t change. The followings have the same meanings.

Adjectives Treated as Adverbs

You can let adjectives work as adverbs of manner. Almost all of the adjectives can become adverbs. Here are the conjugation rules.

I-adjectives: To Replace い with く

Na-adjectives: To Add に instead of な

That’s very simple and useful, isn’t it? One point you should know is that some adverbs that are not related to adjectives end with に. The following is a list for general adverbs. You need to remember each vocabulary term, however, the usage remains the same.

Adverbs Not Related to Adjectives

Here, let's take some more sentence examples. 

Adverbs of Degree

These type of adverbs can express degree, however they will not necessarily be used only for adjectives. For example, the noun: 美び人じん means “good-looking woman” and the verb: 疲つかれる means “to be tired.” You can express how beautiful and tired she is by using adverbs.

Again, since Japanese adverbs can be placed anywhere in sentences if they appear before verbs, the following is also correct and has the same meaning as the examples above.

Vocabulary List

We have made this in descending order and put English translations if similar ones are available. Note: Translation between languages cannot be perfect, e.g. “very” appears several times.

High

Middle

Low

*They have to be with negative forms.

Other Adverbs of Degree

Adverbs of degree can be further subdivided. We have listed them here for your reference. Since the usage remains the same, you can use them in the way you have learned so far.

Frequency

Vocabulary List in Descending Order

*They have to be with negative forms.

Level of Certainty

Vocabulary List in Descending Order

Amount

Vocabulary List in Descending Order

*They have to be with negative forms.

Others

There are adverbs which cannot be categorized. The usage won’t change and hence we think you will use it properly. Here, we will pick up some of them.

Vocabulary List

Summary

1. Adverbs basically modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs
2. Adverbs can be placed anywhere in sentences if they appear before verbs
3. I-adjectives can be treated as adverbs by replacing い with く
4. Na-adjectives can be treated as adverbs by adding に instead of な

You have learned a lot of adverbs so far. What you have to memorize here is how to use adverbs, not all of the vocabulary. Please memorize words step by step. Now, you know how to modify verbs, adjectives, and nouns by using adverbs. Next, you will tackle advanced topics involving adjectives.