Categories of adverbs

Common types of adverb according to their meaning are adverbs of time, adverbs of place and adverbs of manner. In addition, this lesson briefly discusses conjunctional adverbs and pronominal adverbs.

Adverbs of time tell us when and event takes place. There are different ways of specifying time. In the first example below the adverb morgen indicates a specific moment in time, tomorrow. Soms in the second example indicates a frequency.

Morgen gaan we met z’n allen naar het café.
Tomorrow we’ll go to the bar together.

Ik ga soms met de fiets naar mijn werk.
Sometimes go to work on my bicycle.

Common adverbs of time are: vandaag (today), morgen (tomorrow), gisteren (yesterday), eergisteren (the day before yesterday), nu (now), toen (then, past), dan (then, future); soms (sometimes), vaak (often), dikwijls (often), regelmatig (regularly).

Adverbs of place tell us where an event takes place. Common subcategories of advbers of place are location (thuis in the first example below) and direction (rechtsaf in the second example)

Ik blijf thuis want ik wil studeren.
I am staying at home because I want to study.

U moet hier rechtsaf.
You have to take a right turn here.

Very common adverbs of place are:

• demonstrative: daar, hier – there, here
• interrogative: waar? – where?
• indefinite: ergens, overal – somewhere, everywhere
• negative: nergens – nowhere

Adverbs of manner tell us how someone acts. As the two examples below demonstrate, English manner adverbs often have the ending -ly. However, Dutch (manner) adverbs do not have such an ending.

Peter schrijft mooi.
Peter writes beautifully.

Op deze weg rijd ik altijd voorzichtig.
On this road I always drive carefully.

Conjunctional adverbs are adverbs because they form part of the sentence. Like conjunctions, however, these adverbs link language elements together, they are so-called cohesive devices. Examples are: bovendien (moreover), zelfs (even), echter (however), toch (yet, still), daarom (therefore), immers (after all), overigens (by the way, incidentally).

Read more in the lesson about conjunctional adverbs.

Pronominal adverbs are adverbs of place in form (usually er, daar or waar) which have a referring function, i.e. they are pronominal in character. Pronominal adverbs always occur in combination with a preposition. In the example below waar occurs in combination with voor:

Het tentamen waarvoor ik nu werk, gaat over Nederlandse literatuur.
The exam I am no working for is about Dutch literature.

Read more in the course about pronominal adverbs.