M03 mgl oth glb 6996 adv indd

Adverb position
1 
The three positions
Adverbs which modify a verb or add information about how, when or where something 
happens can take several positions in a sentence:
front position (before subject)

end position (after object or complement)

These days
 I 
probably
 take my health 
much more seriously
. 

mid position (next to verb)
If the object or complement of a verb is very long, we can put an end-position adverb
before it:
These days I take 
much more seriously
 all those things I used to take for granted.
2 
Front position
We usually put time and place adverbs at the end of the sentence, e.g. 
I worked more than 
twelve hours 
yesterday
, but we can put them at the front to form a link or contrast with 
information in the previous sentence:
I’ve been incredibly busy this week. 
Yesterday
 I worked more than twelve hours.
After negative adverbs (e.g. 
never
), or after adverbs of time and place followed by a verb of 
movement or position, we can put the verb before the subject. We usually only do this in 
formal written English:
Never
 had he seen such a disturbing sight.
Here
 lies the body of our late sovereign.
Inversion 
➤
Unit 76.2
 
/
 
3
!
We do not use adverbs of definite frequency, e.g. 
daily
, 
weekly
, in front position:
✗ 
Monthly I get paid.
✓ 
I get paid 
monthly
.
3 
Mid position
This is the usual position for the following adverbs, and for 
even
and 
only
.
adverbs of indefinite frequency
always frequently generally hardly ever never normally
occasionally often rarely seldom sometimes usually
adverbs of degree
absolutely almost completely entirely just hardly partly
quite rather really slightly totally 
adverbs of certainty
certainly definitely probably
most short adverbs of time
already finally immediately no longer soon still then
(but not
 today
,
 yesterday
,
 tomorrow
,
 
etc.)
!
With the present and past simple we put the adverb between the subject and the verb, 
but with simple forms of 
be
the adverb goes after the verb:
✗
She arrives always by taxi and she always is on time.
✓ 
She