Adverbs show manner, location, time, quantity, and so forth. Adverbs have an E-ending in Esperanto.
- rapide = rapidly, with speed
- bele = beautifully, with beauty
- urbe = in the city/cities
- hejme = in one's own home
- tage = in the day
- matene = in the morning
- lunde = on Mondays, every Monday
- normale = in a normal manner, in normal situations
- multe = in a large quantity
- alveninte = after (the) arrival
On locational adverbs, the accusative N ending for direction is sometimes used: urben = "al la urbo(j)" (to the city(ies)), hejmen = "al la propra(j) hejmo(j)" (to their own home(s)). But an adverb can never receive a J-ending.
For comparisons, adverbs are used together with the particles pli (more) and plej (most).
Use of adverbs
An adverb can act as an adject (an addition or description) of a verb:
-
Ili manĝas rapide. - They eat quickly.
Rapide (quickly) is an adject of manĝas (eat), and shows the manner of eating.
-
Urbe troviĝas multaj restoracioj. - Many restaurants can be found in a city.
Urbe (in a city) is an adject of troviĝas (can be found), and shows the place of the finding.
An adverbial adject can also relate to a whole phrase:
-
Kompreneble mi iros. - Of course I will go.
Kompreneble (understandably, of course) relates to the whole phrase. It doesn't show the manner of going, but comments on the fact that I will go. This whole fact is understandable or obvious.
An adverb can also act as an epithet of an adjective, of another adverb, and of an adverbial particle:
- Ĝi estas sufiĉe granda. - It is sufficiently big.
- Li manĝas terure multe. - He eats terribly much.
- Ili revenos treege baldaŭ. - They will return extremely soon.
An adverb can also be a predicative description of an infinitive verb or of a subclause:
-
Estas amuze labori. - It is fun to work.
Amuze (fun) describes the word labori (to work).
- Multe maĉi estas necese por bona digesto. - Chewing a lot is necessary for good digestion.
Adjectives and adverbs are very similar. The thing that is to be described determines whether an adjective or an adverb should be used.
Quantitative adverbs can be used as if they were nouns: Tie loĝas multe (= multo) da stranguloj.
Adverbial particles
Some of the particles in Esperanto can be used like adverbs in a sentence, but they don't have the E-ending. These are the table words in E, EL, OM, AM, and AL, the particles pli and plej, the particle ne, the particles ĉi, for, ankoraŭ, baldaŭ, hodiaŭ, hieraŭ, morgaŭ, jam, ĵus, nun, plu, tuj, ajn, almenaŭ, ankaŭ, apenaŭ, des, do, eĉ, ja, jen, jes, ju, kvazaŭ, mem, nur, preskaŭ, tamen, tre and tro. Adverbial particles are adverbs in principle, but in this grammar they are called adverbial particles, to clearly distinguish them from the adverbs that have an E-ending.