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Adverbs of Quality by Sandra Rosenstiel

Many adverbs describe the way in which something is done; for example, Mi madrina pinta muy bien, pero dibuja mal (My godmother paints very well but draws badly). All adverbs of quality in Spanish can be enhanced by the word muy, for example, Tú manejas muy distraídamente (You drive very dis-tractedly). Let's look at some more examples of adverbs of quality:

  • bien (well)

  • mal (badly)

  • rápidamente (rapidly)

  • lentamente (slowly)

  • felizmente (happily)

  • tristemente (sadly)

  • afortunadamente (fortunately)

  • desafortunadamente (unfortunately)

  • ricamente (richly)

  • pobremente (poorly)

  • locamente (crazily)

  • tranquilamente (calmly)

  • distraídamente (distractedly)

  • emocionalmente (emotionally)

  • cuidadosamente (carefully)

  • atentamente (attentively)

    • Adverbs of quality are often replaced by their related adjective forms in speech. Though this is incorrect, it is becoming more common. For example, Usted corre rápidamente (You run quickly) will often be expressed as Usted corre rápido (You run fast).

    Formation of Adverbs of Quality

    You probably noticed that most of the adverbs of quality end in -mente, and you may have noticed than many of them look like they might be based on adjective forms. For example, the adverb absolutamente is related to the adjective absoluto. Just take off the -o at the end of the masculine singular form of the adjective, drop in an -a, and then add the suffix -mente. If the adjective ends in the vowel -e like inteligente or a consonant like natural, simply add the suffix -mente without changing a thing: inteligentemente and naturalmente.

    Of course, not all adjectives can be turned into adverbs. Colors, for example, don't have adverb forms in Spanish; there's no such thing as “yellowly.”

    When an adjective with an accent is changed to an adverb by adding -mente, the accent should stay in the original location. For example: dis-traído > distraídamente and fácil > fácilmente.

    Practice: Adjective to Adverb

    Change the following adjectives into adverbs. Then check your work in Appendix D.

    • artístico (artistic) __________

    • callado (quiet) __________

    • furioso (furious) __________

    • metódico (methodical) __________

    • delicado (delicate) __________

    • cómico (funny, comical) __________

    • libre (free) __________

    • básico (basic) __________

    • general (general) __________

    • religioso (religious) __________

    For some extra fun, use each of these adverbs in a sentence to talk about how you, your family, friends, and/or colleagues do things. Make up some more adverbs and check your inventions in a dictionary.

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