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How to use adverbs in Italian?

By: Claudia Quesito Thu May 16 2024
Italian
Adverbs

Adverbs are words that are used to modify adjectives, verbs, other adverbs, or even whole sentences. In English, adverbs often end with the suffix “-ly.” The Italian equivalent of this ending is -mente:

Silvia, puoi parlare più lentamente?

Silvia, can you speak more slowly?

Not all Italian adverbs are created equal though: many of them do not end in -mente. An example? Iniziamo subito!(Let’s get started right away) And what better clue could we hope for our journey into the world of adverbs? Iniziamo subito!

Table of Contents

    What do adverbs do?

    As we mentioned above, adverbs are words (or phrases) that modify — by describing, specifying, or determining— the meaning of:

    • adjectives

      Elena è molto onesta.

      Elena is very honest.

    • verbs

      Hai risposto immediatamente?

      Did you answer immediately?

    • other adverbs

      Forse ho risposto troppo velocemente.

      Maybe I answered too quickly.

    • whole sentences

      Sfortunatamente, non avevo le chiavi.

      Unfortunately, I didn’t have the keys.

    Important

    Adverbs are invariable , i.e. they do not have gender or number. This means you never need to worry about agreement!

    How to use Italian adverbs?

    Adverbs in Italian can determine how, where, when, and to what degree something does (or does not) occur or exist. They can also confirm or deny a statement, suggest a doubt or a question, and or introduce or exclaim about something. Looks like a lot of work, right? Let’s see all these roles in detail.

    • To express how:

      The avverbi di modo(adverbs of manner) describe how the action expressed by the verb is carried out, or qualify an adjective or another adverb.

      Damiano gioca bene a tennis.

      Damiano plays tennis well.

    • To express where:

      The avverbi di luogo(adverbs of location) indicate where something happens or where someone/something is located in relation to someone/something else.

      Stefano abita vicino ai suoi genitori.

      Stefano lives close to his parents.

      Important

      The words ne and ci (or its more outdated version, vi) are avverbi di luogo. You surely have used ci while stating the presence of something:

      A Firenze ci sono tante chiese.

      There are many churches in Florence.

      Ci/vi and ne qualify as adverbs when they mean, respectively, “in this/that place” (as in our example above) and “from that place,” as in this exchange:

      • Vieni con me in piscina?

        Will you come with me to the pool?

      • Scusa ma non mi va. Ne sono appena uscito!

        I’m sorry, but I don’t feel like it. I have just come out (from there!)

    • To express when:

      The avverbi di tempo(time adverbs) specify when, how often, and for how long an action happens.

      Io e Antonia ci vedremo presto. Oggi abbiamo parlato a lungo ma ultimamente non ci vediamo spesso.

      Antonia and I will meet soon. Today we talked for a long time, but lately we haven’t seen each other often.

    • To express how much:

      The avverbi di quantità(adverbs of degree) determine the quantity or intensity of verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

      Siamo molto contenti: la casa è più grande di quanto pensassimo.

      We’re very happy: the house is bigger than we thought.

      Some of these adverbs are used to form comparative and superlative constructions. To learn more, check out What are comparative and superlative adverbs in Italian?

    • To affirm, negate, or express doubt:

      The avverbi di valutazione(adverbs of evaluation) are used to make judgements about what is expressed by verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. These adverbs can be sub-classified as follows:

      • avverbi di affermazione(adverbs of affirmation)

        Mario passerà certamente l’esame.

        Mario will certainly pass the exam.

      • avverbi di negazione(adverbs of negation)

        Eloisa non vuole venire al cinema, nemmeno se ci sei anche tu.

        Eloisa doesn’t want to come to the movies, not even if you come

      • avverbi di dubbio(adverbs of doubt)

        Forse vengo, ma eventualmente te lo dico dopo.

        Maybe I’ll come, but in case, I’ll tell you later.

    • To introduce questions or exclamations:

      The avverbi interrogativi(interrogative adverbs) and avverbi esclamativi(exclamative adverbs) are used, as their names suggest, to introduce questions and exclamations:

      • Com’è andato l’esame?

        How did the exam go?

      • Benissimo!

        Very well!

      • Come sei bravo!

        How good you are!

      We have two instances of come: the first one (shortened to com’ because it’s followed by another e) is an interrogative adverb since it’s used to form a question; the second one introduces an exclamation, therefore it qualifies as an exclamation adverb.

    • To introduce something or someone:

      Finally, we have the avverbi introduttivi, or presentativi(adverbs of introduction) used to make introductions. The only avverbio introduttivo used in contemporary Italian is ecco:

      Ecco mio fratello!

      Here is my brother!

    How to form Italian adverbs?

    According to their form, Italian adverbs can be classified into four types

    • avverbi primitivi(primary adverbs), which do not come from any other words bene(well), and male(badly), for instance.

      • Marta, come stai?

        Marta, how are you?

      • Bene!

        Well!

    • avverbi derivati(derivative adverbs) are used to modify verbs and other primary adverbs. They are formed by adding a suffix, most commonly -mente, to adjectives: lentamente(slowly), velocemente(fast), etc.

      Perché mangi così velocemente?

      Why are you eating so fast?

      The suffix -mente is added to the feminine singular form of the adjective. So, if we take the adjective onesto(honest), we first need to change it to onesta(its feminine form) and then add -mente:

      onesta + -mente = onestamente(honestly)

      Adjectives ending in vowel + -le, -re, -lo, and -ro drop their final vowel (e/o) before adding -mente:

      facile(easy)

      ↓ remove e ↓

      facil-

      ↓ add -mente ↓

      facilmente(easily)

      leggero(light)

      ↓ remove o ↓

      legger-

      ↓ add -mente ↓

      leggermente(lightly)

      Exception!

      Two very common exceptions to this rule are vero, which turns to veramente, and sincero, which becomes sinceramente.

      Important

      Another suffix used to form avverbi derivati, less common but still worth a mention, is -oni, which is added to adverbs coming from nouns or verbs:

      • (a) gattoni(on all fours), for instance, comes from catto(cat) — so, -oni is added to the noun root gatt-

      • (a) penzoloni(dangling), from the penzol- root of the verb penzolare(to dangle)

    • avverbi composti(compound adverbs) are formed by combining two or more words, like soprattutto(above all), formed by sopra & tutto, or inoltre(furthermore), formed by in & oltre

      Devo riposare e, soprattutto, dormire!

      I need to rest and, above all, sleep!

    • locuzioni avverbiali(adverb clauses) are groups of two or more words that function as adverbs: per sempre(forever), di fretta(in a hurry), and all’improvviso(all of a sudden), for instance.

      All’improvviso, è apparso un gatto bianco.

      All of a sudden, a white cat appeared.

    Tip

    Some adjectives have come to gain “an adverb status,” meaning, they are colloquially used as adverbs. In the sentence Giulia corre veloce(Giulia runs quickly), for instance, veloce should be velocemente, but it’s a widely accepted construction. Others are not exactly music to everyone’s ears, like ha risposto giusto(he answered correctly) instead of ha risposto correttamente. But again, you might easily hear these sentences.

    Now that we covered how adverbs are formed, let’s see where to place them in sentences.

    Where to place Italian adverbs?

    In Italian, adverbs are normally placed close to the term they modify. In particular, adverbs are generally found:

    • after the verb they modify:

      Il neonato dormiva profondamente.

      The newborn was sleeping deeply.

    • in compound tenses, between the auxiliary and the past participle:

      Il progetto è finalmente partito.

      The project has finally kicked-off.

      Important

      In the sentence above, finalmente can also appear at the end:

      Il progetto è partito finalmente.

      or at the beginning:

      Finalmente il progetto è partito.

      or even before the auxiliary:

      Il progetto finalmente è partito.

      It’s a subtle — very subtle — matter of nuances: placing finalmente at first, or at last, shifts the highlight of the sentence to the adverb (emphasizing that the project probably took a while to take off).

    • before the adjective:

      Giovanna è molto bella.

      Giovanna is very beautiful.

    • before another adverb:

      Simone parla molto bene il francese.

      Simone speaks French very well.

    • when modifying a sentence, the adverb is normally at the beginning or at the end of it:

      Onestamente, non sono soddisfatto del risultato

      Honestly, I’m not happy with the result.

    • the adverbs non, ci, vi, and ne always go before the verb. The same goes for interrogative and exclamative adverbs.

      Non so… tu cosa dici? Ci vado?

      I don’t know… what do you think? Shall I go there?

    Summary

    Adverbs are invariable words that modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, and, at times, whole sentences. In this post, we saw that adverbs:

    • can express how, where, when, to what degree something happens or exists; they can confirm or deny something, introduce questions, doubts, and exclamations;

    • often end with the suffix -mente, but some very important ones, like bene(well) and male(bad), do not come from any other word and, thus, do not take the suffix -mente;

    • are normally placed close to the verb, adjective, or adverb they modify.

    Small words with a huge workload, right? That’s why we have prepared for you a comprehensive list of Italian adverbs. And naturalmente(of course), some practice! Here's a whole set of activities for you. Buon lavoro!(Good luck with your work!)

    Downloadable Resources

    Elevate your language-learning journey to new heights with the following downloadable resources.

    How to use adverbs in Italian~Comprehensive list of adverbsWhat are comparative and superlative adverbs in Italian~Activities 2

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