GERMAN ADVERBS

Definition: Adverbs are words which describe the action of a verb, adjectives, or other adverbs: They show how, when and where things happen - e.g. "quickly", "often", "outside". You can usually recognise an adverb in English becuase it ends in "-ly" - e.g. "happily", "regularly", "completely". Adverbs typically express some relation of place, time, manner, cause, inference, result, condition, exception, concession, purpose, means, or even negation. The German negative nicht is an adverb.

Most adjectives can be used as adverbs without adding a suffix. In fact, when such adjectives are used as adverbs they have no endings at all:

Anna is a healthy woman (= adjective).
Anna ist eine gesunde Frau.

"Metropolis" is a good film (= adjective).
"Metropolis" ist ein guter Film.

We eat very healthily (= adverb).
Wir essen sehr gesund.

I am very well (= adverb).
Es geht mir gut.

They have been divided up into three groups which describe when, how and where things happen we call them adverbs of time, manner and place.

Adverbs of Time
evening	abends	in the afternoon	nachmittags
soon	bald	at night	nachts
at that time	damals	never	nie
then	dann	never	nimmer
not until	erst	still	noch
early	früh	now	nun
yesterday	gestern	often	oft
immediately	[so]gleich	already	schon
today	heute	seldom	selten
always	immer	immediately	sofort
now	jetzt	late	spät
sometimes	manchmal	daily	täglich
tomorrow	morgen	mornings	morgens

Adverbs of Place
there	da	left	links
there	dort	near	nahe
outside	draußen	nowhere	nirgends
inside	drinnen	above	oben
over there	drüben	right	rechts
along	entlang	everywhere	überall
distant	fern	below	unten
out of	heraus	before, in front	voran
here	hier	far, widely	weit
away	weg	behind	hinten
back	zurück	somewhere	irgendwo
together	zusammen