Severn Spanish

Adverbials (Adv.)

 

Introduction

Once you have reached a fair level of competency with basic grammar--moods, tenses, etc.--adverbials are some of the most potent ways to enrich your Spanish. You've been using them, in one way or another, probably since you first started speaking Spanish. However, many of them are idiomatic, and because of their somewhat idiosyncratic nature, the only way to truly learn them--and learn them well--is to practice with them until you have them committed to memory.

 

Adverbials: adverbs, prepositional phrases, and adverbial clauses

"Adverbials" is basically a sweeping name for all of the things in language that perform the function of adverbs. Adverbials don't need to be single words (frequently they are phrases, or even clauses) but their role is always that of an adverb: to modify a verb, adjective, or other adverb.

There are three main types: adverbs ("slowly," "disgustedly," "cheerfully," etc.), prepositional phrases ("up the stairs," "through the woods," "to the lake," etc.), and adverb clauses (clauses that perform the function of an adverb; see Subjunctive III: Adverbial clauses  or here for more). We will look at each in turn.

 

Adverbs

These are probably most familiar to you. In English, we associate adverbs with the ending "-ly": "She hurriedly ran to the store." In Spanish, a parallel structure exists. Take the feminine form of an adjective and add -mente to form an adverb. For example, the adjective amargo ("bitter") becomes amargamente ("bitterly"), as in, Lloré amargamente ("I cried bitterly").

Other examples:

• triste -- tristemente

• alegre -- alegremente

• lento -- lentamente

• rápido -- rápidamente

• gradual -- gradualmente

• puntual -- puntualmente

 

Prepositional phrases

Prepositional phrases also serve to modify verbs. For example, consider the sentence, "She ran down the block." The prepositional phrase "down the block" modifies the verb "ran"--it tells us where she ran. In Spanish, the same holds: in the sentence, Caminamos por el jardín, the prepositional phrase por el jardín modifies the verb caminar, telling us where we walked.

 

Adverbial clauses

These are a little trickier to wrap your head around. They can also entail some interplay witht he subjunctive, which can be a lot to bear in mind, so take your time.

Basically, we can have clauses that perform the functions of adverbs--principally, modifiying verbs. For instance: "I left without her seeing." In this case, "without her seeing" is a clause (since it contains a subject and conjugated verb) that works as an adverb, telling you how I left--without her seeing. In Spanish, the equivalent would be "Me fui sin que ella me viera," which seems complicated but really isn't. We can break it down like so:

1. The main verb in the sentence, the one in the first clause, is irse, and the subject is yo, resulting in Me fui.

2. The conjuction sin que ("without") is used to connect the two clauses. Sin que happens to be a conjuction that always requires the use of the subjunctive, so we don't need to do any work picking the mood for the second clause.

3. Since all of this action occurred in the past, we need the imperfect subjunctive. Our final sentence is therefore Me fui sin que ella me viera.

 

Common adverbials

Now that you understand the three major types of adverbials, it's time for you to start memorizing the more idiomatic ones. Hopefully the exercises below help, but using them in your own writing and speaking will do the most for you in terms of reinforcing their meanings and usages.