Adverb is the word placed before the verb and adjective to modify and limit them. Learners who study Chinese should know the application of the adverb. It is often used to illustrate the extent, time, degree and mood of the relative behavior or condition, as well as the positive and negative conditions. Sometimes, it can express the relation between two behaviors or conditions.
What’s more, students who learn Chinese language in qualified Mandarin program should first know the features and grammatical functions of the adverb if they want to learn better. Totally, the following parts of this essay will introduce five features and functions of the adverb.
First of all, the main grammatical function of the adverb is to act as the adverbial modifier. Learners whostudy in China may know that the adverb can modify the verb, the adjective and even the whole sentence. For examples, “刚到”, “已经走了”, “最好你去”, “非常高兴”.
Besides, it can modify the pronouns can replace the verb and adjectives such as “这样”, “那样”, “这么着”. The followings are some typical examples provided to learn Mandarin:
① 事情已经这样了，还有什么办法？
② 你就这么着，不要动。
③ 这篇文章就那样了，不需要再修改了。
④ 经过批评帮助，他不在那样了。
Generally speaking, the adverb is not used to modify the noun (phrase) and quantifier (phrase). However, foreigners who learn Chinese in China should know that when these words or phrases are functioned as the predicate, they can be modified by the adverbs that express time and extent and so on. For examples, “今天才星期五，我以为又星期六了”, “王大伯都七十多岁了，他儿子刚十几岁”, “他们结婚已经两三年了”.
During the process of learning Mandarin Chinese, the foreign learners should realize that few adverbs that express the extent and negative condition can sometimes limit the noun (phrase), pronoun or quantifier. The situation is reflected in the sentences like “光你一个人去吗？”, “这件事就你不知道，我们早就知道了” and “天一擦黑，男的一律裤头，女的一律裙子……”.
The second feature is that the adverb usually can’t be modified by another word. Another feature should be that it can’t be a sentence alone as well as answer the question alone. When you learn Chinese language in China, teacher will take the example “昨天的电影好吗？” to explain. The answers can be “很好”or “好”. But the single adverb like “很” is not allowed.
However, there are some exceptions that students should remember when they learn Mandarin in China. A few adverbs like “也许”, “一定”, “别”, “差不多” and “当然” can be used to answer the questions alone. But they are frequently seen only in the oral Chinese. For instance,
甲：给你的钱够不够？
乙：差不多，差不多吧。嘿嘿。
The fourth one is the function to be the complement but only limited in the adverbs expressing degree like “极”, “很”, “坏”, “死” and “透”. The words before them should be adjective or verb expressing mental state such as “好极了”, “高兴极了”, “坏极了”, “脏死了”, “急死了”, “糟糕透了”, “坏透了”. The following three examples often seen in Chinese school in China: “昨天的球赛精彩极了”, “街上的车多得很” and “车出了问题，真把我急死了”.
Last but not least, some adverbs have the function of correlation to connect two verbs or adjectives, even two phrases and clauses. Students who learn to speak Chinese should know four conditions as follows.
The sentence using one single adverb correction is “说干就干”. In the sentence “那座楼又高又大”, two same adverb corrections are used. For two different adverb corrections, the example is “再困难也不怕”. The last condition is to use one adverb and one conjunction or preposition like “不管多难也得学会”.