neulich recently
niemals never
oft often
telefonisch by telephone
wahrscheinlich probably
And the following are adverbs that appear in phrase form:
a prepositional phrase. A large number of adverbial phrases are, indeed, prepositional phrases.
Like das ganze Jahr, many adverbial expressions that tell when something occurs are given in the accusative case. For example:
Ich war den ganzen Tag in Bremen. I was in Bremen all day.
Onkel Peter kommt nächste Woche. Uncle Peter is coming next week.
The function of adverbs is not as simple as modifying a verb, an adverb, or an adjective, because adverbs modify in a variety of ways. Some merely qualify the degree of an adverb or adjective used in a sentence. For example:
außerordentlich exceptionally relativ relatively
etwas somewhat sehr very
fast almost total totally
ganz quite völlig completely
gewöhnlich usually wenig little
nur only ziemlich rather
recht quite, rather zu too
Consider the meaning of the preceding adverbs. They generally would not stand alone but would be used to modify another word. Let’s look at some example sentences:
Die Studentin muss sehr fleißig arbeiten. The student has to work very diligently.
Seine Rede war außerordentlich langweilig. His speech was exceptionally boring.
Wir hatten in diesem Jahr einen relativ We had a relatively warm winter this year. warmen Winter.
verb + adverb Er singt gut.
adverb + adverb Er singt sehr gut.
adverb + adjective Es ist ein ziemlich altes Haus.
Some adverbs portray an attitude toward a statement or are part of the answer to a yes or no ques-tion. Germans call such adverbs modale Adverbien (modal adverbs). They comment on some occurrence or show a point of view. Some commonly used adverbs of this type are
auf jeden Fall in any case selbstverständlich naturally
bestimmt definitely sicher surely, safely
gewiss certainly tatsächlich actually, really
hoffentlich hopefully unbedingt absolutely
leider unfortunately wahrscheinlich probably
natürlich naturally wirklich really
ohne Zweifel without a doubt
Such adverbs are often used in an elliptical phrase, meaning that they can stand alone,
because the content of the response is understood. For example:
—Kann Erik uns helfen? — Can Erik help us?
—Selbstverständlich. — Naturally.
—Haben sie genug Geld, um ins Kino zu gehen? —Do they have enough money to go to the movies?
—Hoffentlich. — Hopefully. (I hope so.)
—Ist deine Mutter wieder gesund? —Is your mother well again?
—Leider nicht. — Unfortunately, not.
In addition, adverbs of this type are used in complete sentences like other adverbs:
Es ist wirklich kalt geworden. It’s gotten really cold.
Der Kranke wird wahrscheinlich heute abend sterben. The patient will probably die this evening
Adverbs and word order
Three major categories of adverbs are those that show time, manner, and place. They can be single words or phrases and are found in abundance in the language. Some examples:
Time Manner
damals then anders differently
gestern yesterday dadurch through it, as a result
heute today irgendwie somehow
im Sommer in summer langsam slowly
lange long mit dem Bus by bus
manchmal sometimes mit Müh und Not with great difficulty
morgen tomorrow schnell fast
nächste Woche next week sorglos carelessly
oft often telefonisch by telephone
selten seldom vorsichtig carefully
Adverbs of place can describe location at a place or motion to a place. For example:
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Location:
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Er wohnt hier.
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He lives here.
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Motion:
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Er kommt hierher.
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He comes here.
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Location:
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Sie bleibt zu Hause.
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She remains at home.
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Motion:
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Sie muss nach Hause gehen.
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She has to go home.
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Location:
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Ich arbeite in der Stadt.
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I work in the city.
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Motion:
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Ich fahre in die Stadt.
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I drive to the city.
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Adverbs cannot be placed in a German sentence at random. Adverbs that describe place appear last in a sentence. Adverbs of manner precede them. Adverbs of time precede adverbs of manner. And if an adverb that describes a point of view is in a sentence, it will precede all the others. For example:
Place: Tina wird nach Bonn fahren. Tina will go to Bonn.
Manner: Tina wird mit dem Auto nach Bonn fahren. Tina will go to Bonn by car.
Time: Tina wird am Freitag mit dem Tina will go to Bonn by car on Friday.
Auto nach Bonn fahren
Point of view: Tina wird leider am Freitag mit Unfortunately, Tina will go to Bonn
dem Auto nach Bonn fahren. by car on Friday.
The position of adverbs in a sentence is generally:
point of view + time + manner + place
Adverbs in the comparative and superlative
Just like adjectives, adverbs have comparative and superlative forms. Unlike adjectives, however, adverbs do not require various endings that reflect gender, case, and number. Their only declen-sional form appears in the superlative, with the preposition am (an dem). Let’s look at some examples:
Positive Comparative Superlative
gut good, well besser better am besten best
schnell fast schneller faster am schnellsten fastest
langsam slowly langsamer slower am langsamsten slowest
schlecht badly schlechter worse am schlechtesten worst