Adverbs/before noun

Adverbs/before noun
Message from littleteacher posted on 10-10-2012 at 21:52:35 (D | E | F)
Hello,

This is driving me crazy. In my opinion, adverbs that are placed BEFORE a noun sound more formal. I can't find information on that particular subtlety of the English grammar anywhere.
Can you help me please?

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Edited by lucile83 on 10-10-2012 21:55

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from gerondif, posted on 10-10-2012 at 23:29:23 (D | E)
Hello,

This is driving me crazy. In my opinion, adverbs that are placed BEFORE a noun sound more formal.
Are you sure it's a noun? An adverb normally modifies a verb , an adjective or another adverb. (Before a noun, I would put adjectives.)
He drives fast, very fast, extremely fast. He is slow, very slow, extremely slow.

A few general hints:
Frequency adverbs are placed before the verb:
He sometimes/usually/often/always/rarely/never/ arrives late.
Adverbs of manner are often placed at the end of the sentence.
He spoke slowly and elegantly.
He suddenly stood up and stared at me; Yes, suddenly placed before the verb is in a way more powerful.

Some adverbs will sound right in front of a verb, it depends on their meaning.
"He stood up stiffly" sounds right, "he stiffly stood up" sounds a little more awkward.

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from notrepere, posted on 10-10-2012 at 23:59:51 (D | E)
Hello

I wouldn't want this to drive you crazy any longer. Here's something that might help:
Old-fashioned grammarians sometimes recommend against using split infinitives. For example, they might recommend saying, I don’t know if you presently are employed, instead of, I don’t know if you are presently employed, even though the latter sounds more natural to most native speakers of English.
But the prejudice against split infinitives and other verb phrases is unfounded. It may seem illogical to place an adverb between an auxiliary word and its verb, but it usually sounds better and is more common in both informal and formal speech and writing.
As far as placement goes:
As a general rule, adverbs should be placed as near as possible to the words they modify. Otherwise, miscues may happen.
Link

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from littleteacher, posted on 11-10-2012 at 23:49:12 (D | E)
Thank you so much for your help!
I'll probably be posting some sentences that I'm still having trouble with, if that's okay.
I'll definitely ask more questions here instead of worrying about grammar on my own.

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from violet91, posted on 15-10-2012 at 20:57:09 (D | E)
Hello,

The place of the adverb is also a way of emphasizing or not.
You will always find ' At the very end '... : an adverb + noun.

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from gerondif, posted on 15-10-2012 at 22:29:02 (D | E)
Hello Violet,
getting soft, are we ? Did the branch fall on your head ??? "Very" is an adjective here !!

very / ˈverɪ/
I.adjective (nanère!!)
1.(actual) même (after n);
this ~ second à la seconde même;
2.(ideal) the ~ person I need exactement la personne qu'il me faut;
the ~ thing I need exactement ce qu'il me faut;
3.(ultimate) tout;
from the ~ beginning depuis le tout début;
at the ~ front tout devant;
to the ~ end jusqu'au bout;
on the ~ edge à l'extrême bord;
4.(mere) (mention, thought) seul (before n);
the ~ idea! quelle idée!

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from violet91, posted on 15-10-2012 at 22:47:26 (D | E)
Well done , dear ! ( maybe the very tree , these days !! )

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from jxnvlitao, posted on 24-10-2012 at 09:25:50 (D | E)
，it looks like the problem has been solved.

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from longrr, posted on 26-10-2012 at 04:07:35 (D | E)
Oh,I have learned about it!Improve myself day by day!
Thanks

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Re: Adverbs/before noun from littleteacher, posted on 30-10-2012 at 22:59:24 (D | E)
Thank you very much for all of your help, and sorry for the tardy reply.

I did some more research, and it seems like placing adverbs at the end, or at least in the middle of sentences is more common.
Then again, some people told me it all depends on what you want to convey.

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