Spanish Essentials For Dummies
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Adding adverbs to your Spanish vocabulary can help your audience better understand how or to what degree or intensity an action is being performed. Spanish has a few different ways to express adverbs: by adding -mente to the end of feminine singular adjectives, by combining a noun with the Spanish preposition con, or by using simple phrases.

Add -mente to the feminine singular form of an adjective

-Mente is the Spanish equivalent of the common English adverb ending -ly. Unlike adjectives, which require agreement in gender and number with the noun they describe, adverbs require no agreement because they modify a verb and not a noun or pronoun. Following are examples of how to form adverbs with -mente.
Forming Various Types of Spanish Adverbs
Masc. Adj. Fem. Adj. Adverb Meaning
completo completa completamente completely
lento lenta lentamente slowly
rápido rápida rápidamente quickly
alegre alegre alegremente happily
breve breve brevemente briefly
frecuente frecuente frecuentemente frequently
especial especial especialmente especially
final final finalmente finally
feroz feroz ferozmente ferociously

Use con with the adjective

Sometimes, forming an adverb in Spanish by using the feminine singular form of the adjective is just plain awkward. When writing, you may find the spelling tricky. And at other times, you may not recall the feminine form of the adjective. Luckily, you have an easy way out. You can use the preposition con (with) + the noun to form an adverbial phrase, which functions in the same way as an adverb. The following table highlights some examples of how this works.
Adverbial Phrases in Spanish
Con + Noun Adverb Meaning
con alegría alegremente happily
con claridad claramente clearly
con cortesía cortésmente courteously
con energía enérgicamente energetically
con habilidad hábilmente skillfully
con paciencia pacientemente patiently
con rapidez rápidamente quickly
con respeto respetuosamente respectfully

Memorize simple adverb phrases

Some adverbs and adverbial expressions aren’t formed from adjectives; they’re words or phrases in and of themselves. Following are some of the most frequently used expressions that fit this description.
Frequently Used Spanish Adverb Phrases
Adverb Meaning Adverb Meaning
a menudo often menos less
a veces sometimes mientras meanwhile
Ahora now más tarde later
ahora mismo right now mejor better
al fin finally muy very
Allá there peor worse
Aquí here poco little
Bastante quite, rather, enough por consiguiente consequently
Casi almost por supuesto of course
Cerca near pronto soon
de buena gana willingly pues then
de Nuevo again siempre always
de repente suddenly sin embargo however, nevertheless
de vez en cuando from time to time también also, too
Demasiado too tan as, so
Despacio slowly tarde late
después afterward temprano soon, early
en seguida immediately todavía still, yet
hoy día nowadays todos los días everyday
lejos far ya already
más more ya no no longer

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