German does not have the –ly distinction in English between an adjective and an adverb. You can use almost any adjective as an adverb without changing it, as long as it makes sense:
| Das Pferd ist schnell. The horse is quick. |
Er rennt schnell. He runs quickly. |
The only thing in German that’s somewhat comparable to our –ly is the –erweise fomulation, which modifies an entire clause rather than just a verb or an adjective:
| Es ist normal, dass wir um 7 Uhr essen. It's normal for us to eat at 7 o'clock. |
Normalerweise essen wir um 7 Uhr. Normally we eat at 7 o'clock. |
As in English, there are also some common adverbs that don’t map as directly to adjectives. They all work grammatically in the same way as their English equivalents, and they don’t take any case endings, so you just have to memorize them. Some of them you’ve probably seen already:
| Time | Manner | Place |
|---|---|---|
|
anfangs -- at the beginning bald -- soon bereits -- already damals -- at that time, then danach -- afterward dann -- then diesmal -- this time einmal -- once endlich -- finally, at last früher -- earlier, previously gestern -- yesterday heute -- today immer -- always inzwischen -- meanwhile jemals -- ever jetzt -- now langsam -- slowly längst -- long ago manchmal -- sometimes meistens -- mostly, most often neulich -- recently nie -- never noch -- still nochmal -- again nun -- now oft -- often schon -- already sofort -- immediately vorbei -- over, past vorher -- previously, before vorhin -- just now, a short time ago wieder -- again zuerst -- first, at first zurzeit -- at the moment, at present |
beinahe -- nearly, almost besonders -- especially bloß -- merely, simply, just daneben -- besides, in addition ebenfalls -- likewise, also ebenso -- equally, similarly eigentlich -- actually, in fact fast -- almost gemeinsam -- in common, jointly gern, gerne -- gladly hoffentlich -- hopefully insgesamt -- in total, altogether kaum -- hardly leider -- unfortunately mindestens -- at least, at minimum nämlich -- namely natürlich -- naturally nebenbei -- by the way, incidentally schließlich -- finally sehr -- very sogar -- even sonst -- otherwise teilweise -- partially übrigens -- by the way ungefähr -- approximately ursprünglich -- originally vielleicht -- perhaps, maybe wahrscheinlich -- probably, likely wirklich -- really, truly ziemlich -- rather, quite zufällig -- accidentally, by chance zurück -- back zusammen -- together |
aufwärts -- upward auseinander -- separated, apart außen -- outside da -- here, there drüben -- over there geradeaus -- straight ahead hier -- here hinten -- in back, at the back innen -- inside links -- left nebenan -- next door nirgends/nirgendwo -- nowhere oben -- above rechts -- right (≠left) rückwärts -- backwards überall -- everywhere unten -- under vorn(e) -- in front, at the front vorwärts -- forward |
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