Portuguese adverbs are words that allow you to say
what you really want to say.

Olá, tudo bem?!

Today we are going to learn the main Portuguese adverbs. If you learn them, your Portuguese will be clearer and impressive!

But you may be wondering what an adverb is. Or perhaps what is the importance of such a word in a Portuguese phrase.

OK, let me explain.

If you don't now what an adverb is, very quickly I can tell you that it is a word which modifies

1. A verb,

2. An adjective and sometimes

3. Another adverb.

To explain the first case, say for instance, you have the phrase

"A Maria lê bem." - "Maria reads well".

The adverb (the word in bold) shows the manner in which Maria's reading is performed. She could read badly, or incorrectly, but the adverb "bem" tells us that the manner she reads is "well" - a good manner.

To explain the second case, for instance , in the examples

"O Manuel é notavelmente inteligente." - "Manuel is remarkably intelligent".

and

"A Sofia é muito bonita." - "Sofia is very beautiful.",

Here, the adverb "notavelmente" modifies the adjective "inteligente", and the other adverb "muito" modifies the adjective "bonita" by expressing the degree of intelligence and beauty, respectively.

Get it? Good!

To give you an example for the last case - when an adverb modifies another adverb - say for instance you have the phrase

"A Catarina fala muito depressa." - "Catarina speaks very quickly."

Here we can see that "muito" and "depressa" are two different adverbs, however "depressa" shows the manner Catarina speaks and "muito" expresses the degree of speed of her speech. She could speak not very quickly or even inadequately quickly, but the adverb tells us that she speaks very quickly.

You see? Easy! Wow, I love this!

In Portuguese, adverbs, are varied in their forms and context to express time, place, mode, quantity, intensity, affirmation, denial, doubt and exclusivity. There are also some "adverbial phrases" or, as the grammar call them, "adverbial locutions", which are no more than adverbs but expressed in more than one word, for instance "de vez em quando" - "now and again"

The following tables will give you the most common adverbs divided by the categories aforementioned, with the equivalent English translation for your guidance. So, let's read them carefully!

1. Adverbs that indicate TIME:

Portuguese	English
Hoje	Today
Ontem	Yesterday
Amanhã	Tomorrow
Cedo	Early
Tarde	Late
Agora	Now Nowadays
Já	Now Already
Já não	Not any more
Então	Then So
Logo	Shortly Immediately Immediately after Shortly later
Sempre *	Always All the time Constantly
Nunca	Never Ever
Ainda	Still Yet
Antes	Before
Dantes	Formerly Those times before
Antigamente	Formerly Those times before
Primeiro	Firstly First of all
Enfim	Anyway

* The adverb "sempre" must always follow the verb (e.g. Ela quer sempre bolos" - "She always wants cakes".), because is you place the adverb before the verb (as you do in English), you'll be saying something idiomatically different in Portuguese.

You see, how useful and how important do you think these Portuguese adverbs are for your communication?

Very useful and very important, aren't they?

OK. Let's jump for the next category.

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2. Adverbs that indicate PLACE:

Portuguese	English
Aqui	Here
Aí	There Then (Brazilian Portuguese)
Alí	Over there
Cá	Here
Lá	Over there
Perto (de)	Near Next to Around the corner
Longe (de)	Far from
Dentro (de)	Inside
Fora (de)	Outside
Adiante (de)	Ahead
Atrás (de)	Behind At the rear
Detrás (de)	Behind
Acima	Above
Abaixo	Below
Debaixo	Under Underneath

These are also nice ones, aren't they?

Try to learn these first and then jump to the next ones.

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3. Adverbs that indicate MODE or MANNER:

Portuguese	English
Bem	Well
Mal	Badly
Melhor	Better
Pior	Worse
Assim	So This way Therefore
Depressa	Quicly
Devagar	Slowly
Como	As Like The way like
Sobretudo	Above all
Principalmente	Mainly
Facilmente	Easily
Rapidamente	Quickly
Efetivamente	Actually

These ones are very useful ones, don't you think?
Many Portuguese adverbs end in "...mente" - whilst in English end in "...ly", e.g. "fluentemente" - "fluently".

Portuguese adverbs ending in "...mente" are formed from the feminine form of common adjectives, e.g. the adjective "rápido" (quick) in its feminine form is "rárida", so the correspondent Portuguese adverb is "rapidamente" (quickly).

Here is a challenge: How many adverbs ending in "...mente" can you make up from English words?

Have you found some? Write a logical text and use them.

In the meantime, if you are still curious about the next category, read on and let's find together the Portuguese adverbs that indicate quantity or intensity.

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4. Adverbs that indicate QUANTITY OR INTENSITY:

Portuguese	English
Muito	Very Much Too Too much
Pouco	Little
Mais	More Plus
Menos	Less Minus
Tanto	As much Too much
Tão (de)	So much
Quanto (de)	As much
Quase (de)	Almost
Bastante	A lot Too much Enough
Demsiado (de)	Too much

Have you noticed, that in English you need more adverbs than in Portuguese to express yourself? With the same Portuguese adverb you can say things that in English you could not. Interesting hein...

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5. Adverbs that indicate AFFIRMATION:

Portuguese	English
Sim	Yes
Certamente	Certainly For sure
Decerto	certainly
Realmente	Really

These Portuguese adverbs are quite easy to guess or even to remember, aren't they?

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6. Adverbs that indicate DENIAL:

Portuguese	English
Não	No Don't
Nunca	Never Ever
Nem	Neither Nor
Jamais	Never ever

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7. Adverbs that indicate DOUBT:

Portuguese	English
Talvez	Maybe Perhaps May
Se calhar	Maybe Perhaps May
Provavelmente	Probably

These are not too many. Actually, when we speak we talk more about real facts than doubting about situations. ;-)

The next category is...

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8. Adverbs that indicate EXCLUSIVITY:

Portuguese	English
Só	Only Just
Somente	Only Just
Unicamente	Only Just
Apenas	Only Just
Senão	Otherwise

In this category of Portuguese adverbs we have indeed many ways to say the same thing.

OK. We almost at the end! Ooff! Ok, the last category is...

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9. ADVERBIAL PHRASES OR LOCUTIONS:

Portuguese	English
Às escuras	In the dark
Às direitas	Right Well
ÀS vezes	Sometimes
Ao acaso	Randomly
Em breve	Soon Shorly
Em vão	In vain
À toa	Crazily
Por acaso	By chance
De baixo	Under
De lado	Beside
A sós	Alone
Com efeito	Effectively
De novo	Again One more time
Em resumo	In conclusion
De vez em quando	From time to time Now and then Once in a blue moon
A cada passo	Often
Por alto	Roughly
À vontade	Comfortably
Com certeza	Surely Certainty
Como deve ser	Properly
De facto (PT) De fato (BR)	Actually
Actualmente	Nowadays

And this is it. Now you know what you have to do, right?

You got it! You have to write down sentences and stories using these words!

Até amanhã (See you tomorrow).

Rafa :-)

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