Spanish Adverbs
Spanish Adverbs
Spanish Adverbs
Tengo bastante.
I have enough.
¿Cómo lo hiciste?
Sí te ayudé.
When we use adverbs to describe verbs, we will place them after the verb.
If the adverb is describing an adjective or another adverb, we will put it before those
words.
In Spanish, adverbs can’t be placed between two verbs or between auxiliary verbs
and main verbs. For example, in English, we could say “I have always eaten dinner at 6
pm.” In Spanish, we can’t split the auxiliary (have) from the second part of the verb
(eaten). In order to build this, we say:
In English we would say “I have not been to Spain.” However, In Spanish, we say:
Yo no he visitado España.
If the adjective ends with an -e or consonant, keep it in that form and then add "-mente." For
example:
As an additional little rule, if you find yourself using multiple adverbs one after the other, leave
all of the first few in the feminine form (or if it ends with -e or consonant, its original form), and
add the -mente only to the last one. For example:
Finally, if the adjective originally has an accent, you keep it when you build the adverb. For
example:
rápido ("quick") → rápida → rápidamente ("quickly")
Important
Many adjectives can be turned into adverbs by adding -mente, however, this doesn’t
work all the time! Certain adjectives can’t be turned into adverbs because it doesn’t make
sense to use them to describe a verb: colors, nationalities, etc.
As a general rule, if an adverb ends in “-ly” in English, it can end in -mente in Spanish.
However, this is not always the case. Some Spanish adverbs do not come from an
adjective, and therefore are not formed by adding -mente: mal ("badly"), despacio
("slowly"), pronto ("quickly"), etc.
Now let's switch gears and talk about adverbs of place. Ready?
Now, let’s get a little more in depth with these adverbs of place:
Aquí ("here") is used to talk about a specific location near the person speaking. If you are
referring to time, aquí ("here") implies a specific starting point, like “right now.” For
example:
Location:
These red shoes here are very pretty. What do you think?
Time:
De aquí en adelante espero que me digas a qué hora vas a llegar a la casa, por favor.
From here on out I hope you tell me at what time you will arrive home, please.
Did you notice acá ("here") on the diagram? Basically, both acá and aquí mean "here,"
but while aquí is used to talk about "here" as a place, acá is used to talk about “here”
with a notion of movement. For example:
Example with aquí Example with acá
Trae los libros acá.
Los libros están aquí.
Bring the books here.
The books are here.
In this one, the books need to move from “there” to
This example is for the
“here” and we are using a verb of movement: traer ("to
place/location of the books!
bring")
Ahí ("there") is used to talk about things that are close, but not easily within the reach of
the person speaking. Conversely, it refers to something close to the listener or audience as
you can see on the diagram above. For example:
(The hat is near, but I can’t reach it! The listener is way closer than me!)
Allá ("over there") will refer to things or people that are far away from the speaker
(usually out of sight). For example:
La casa de José queda allá por el centro. Está como a media hora de aquí.
José’s house is over there near downtown. It’s about half an hour from here
Adverbs of place are often paired with Spanish demonstrative adjectives ("this,” “that,” “those,”
etc). As a reminder, you can check out our post to get a refresher on how to use them!
Ya ("already") is an adverb that changes meaning depending on the tense of the sentence.
In the past, it indicates that something was done, similar to the use of “already” in
English. If used with the present, it means “right now,” and when used in the future it
can mean “eventually.” For example:
Verb
Example
Tense
Past Hay que apurarnos, la película ya comenzó.
Verb
Example
Tense
When we say ya no, however, it means something is no longer valid or does not exist
at that moment. In English, ya no would be similar to "not anymore" or "no longer."
Cuando me preguntaron cómo me iba con el ballet, les respondí que ya no lo practico.
When they asked me how ballet was going, I answered that I do not practice it anymore.
Tip
¡Ya sé!
I know!
¡Ya casi termino!
I’m almost done!
¡Ya voy!
I'm coming!
Todavía ("still, yet") implies the continuation of something, it implies something has been
happening until now.
Carla dijo que su bebé todavía estaba durmiendo y por eso no puede venir.
Carla said her baby was still sleeping (until now) and that’s why she is not coming.
When we say todavía no, it implies something has not been done up until a certain point.
Aún ("still, yet") is very similar to todavía. They can be used interchangeably. The same
happens with aún no. Look at the same examples from above, but with aún ("still, yet"):
Carla dijo que su bebé aún estaba durmiendo y por eso no puede venir.
Carla said her baby was still sleeping (until now) and that’s why she is not coming.
Tip
Aun without an accent means "even." It's interchangeable with incluso ("even").
While both luego and entonces can be translated as "then," there are some differences in their
use.
In Spanish, we use entonces to talk about "then" as "at that point in time." For example:
Primero tengo que ir al súper. Entonces tendré lo que necesito para cocinar la cena.
First I need to go to the supermarket. Then (at that time) I will have what I need to make
dinner.
If you go to the store and they do not have apples, then (in that case) buy pears.
Luego ("then"), on the other hand, will be used with a series of actions, to say “later” or
“next.” Luego ("then") can also substitute the word después ("later, later on"). For
example:
Intensifiers in Spanish
Intensifiers are adverbs that refer to quantity or degree. Here are a few that are challenging to
Spanish learners.
Muy cannot be used to intensify comparative adverbs and adjectives like más ("more") or menos
("less"). To intensify comparatives, use mucho instead (see below.)
Mucho ("a lot"), on the other hand, is used to talk about amounts. It can also mean “many” or
“much.” It is used after verbs or before Spanish comparative adjectives and adverbs like más
("more") or mejor ("better"). For example:
Words like mucho can also function as adjectives or pronouns if followed by a noun or replacing
one. For more on this, check out our post on quantifiers in Spanish.
While both of these words look very similar, they are very different! They are even different
parts of speech. You read that right! And, they can be used as intensifiers.
Sí ("yes") (with an accent!) is an adverb that implies affirmation, agreement. Most
often translated as “yes,” but when used as an intensifier, in English we use an emphatic
tone instead. For example:
On the other hand si ("if") (without an accent) is a Spanish conjunction that introduces
conditional statements (if, then) or an indirect question. However, when used as an
intensifier, it’s usually preceded by pero ("but"), and it adds emphasis to the following
statement.
- How come you don’t know the time we leave? -(but) I told you yesterday!
You may have seen the intensifier bien ("well, very, quite") as you study Spanish. It can modify
a verb, an adjective, and also certain adverbs:
Bien is invariable, but the adjective that follows will match the noun being described. For
example:
To sum it up
While there are a lot of similarities between adverbs in English and adverbs in Spanish, there are
also differences. Here are some of the items that differ between the two languages:
Placement rules:
o Adverbs are placed after the verbs they describe.
o Adverbs go before adjectives or adverbs they describe.
o We do not place adverbs between verbs or between auxiliary verbs and main
verbs.
Adverbs of manner:
While in English we have “here” and “there” to talk about distance from the speaker, in
Spanish we have three different levels of distance: aquí/acá ("here"), ahí ("there"), and
allá ("over there").