Do you know what is an adverb? Adverbs are words which describe the action of a verb, an adjective or another adverb, and in this lesson, we are going to see how to form and use Spanish adverbs.
Forming adverbs
1. Most of the Spanish adverbs are formed by adding -mente to the feminine singular form of an adjective if this is different from the masculine singular. If there was an accent on the adjective, it remains on the adverb:
| Masculine | Feminine | Adverb |
| Dulce | Dulce | Dulcemente (gently) |
| Lento | Lenta | Lentamente (slowly) |
| Rápido | Rápida | Rápidamente (quickly) |
| Fácil | Fácil | Fácilmente (easily) |
……
2. When two adjectives are used together, only the second one has -mente on the end. The first one is always in the feminine form.
El avión aterrizó rápida pero suavemente (The plane landed quickly but softly).
Organicé mis vacaciones cuidadosa y metódicamente (I organized my holiday carefully and methodically).
3. Other important adverbs that do not follow any rule, but they are very common, so it is worth learning them: muy (very), más (more), bastante (quite), poco (little), despacio (slowly), siempre (always), después (after), temprano (early), aquí (here), cerca (nearby), quizás (perhaps), bien (well), así (like this)…
Notice that you can say: Mi abuela conduce lentamente or mi abuela conduce despacio (My grandmother drives slowly).
Types of adverbs
Adverbs can be organized in groups:
Click on the link to learn more about frequency adverbs.
Some of the above adverbs can qualify an adjective or another adverb:
Mi abuela conduce demasiado lentamente (My granmother drives too slowly).
Me habló muy respetuosamente (He spoke to me very respectfully).
Another way to form an adverb is to use the preposition con + the singular form of the noun.
| Adjective | Adverb | Con + noun | Translation |
| cuidadoso/a | cuidadosamente | con cuidado | (carefully) |
| perfecto/a | perfectamente | con perfección | (perfectly |
| lento/a | lentamente | Con lentitud | (slowly) |
Ramón está buscando el amor desesperadamente/ con desesperación (Ramon is looking for love desperately).
If you want to learn more, click on the link to watch a video lesson about adverbs.
Can you identify what is an adverb in this exercise?
Now you can practice what you have learned with the activity below, and remember you can contact your tutor with any question you have. Don’t you have a Spanish personal tutor yet?
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