I am confused about adverbs that can be placed in front of the verb as in:
He quickly reads a book.
And can be used at the end of the sentence as in:
He works hardly
Can I mix them as:
He really works hardly
adverbsgrammar
I am confused about adverbs that can be placed in front of the verb as in:
He quickly reads a book.
And can be used at the end of the sentence as in:
He works hardly
Can I mix them as:
He really works hardly
Best Answer
Hardly belongs to that category of words in English whose meanings don't match or coincide with the first or most logical ones that pop into your head.
When hard is used as an adjective in the following: "He is a hard worker," we understand it to mean that the subject is someone who works long hours with great zeal and diligence. But English, if it needs reminding, isn't always logical, and the real meaning of hardly is surprisingly quite the opposite.
And what's more, hardly usually precedes the verb it modifies; therefore, the phrase "He hardly works" means someone who works very little or so rarely that it's almost not worth the effort of mentioning.
The adverbial form of the adjective hard is instead...hard.
Fast is another example of a word that is used as both an adjective and an adverb.
Typical adjectives which do not add ly to form adverbs are: early, late, hard, fast, long, high, low, deep, near.
Nowadays grammarians call them flat adverbs but in the past they were better-known as plain adverbs. Why do they exist? Surely they ought to have some visual clue as to their grammatical function? I found this brief explanation which might help (emphasis mine)
Now onto the question of where to position an adverb of manner in a sentence. When an adverb modifies a verb, you can usually put it either in front, in the middle, or at the end of a phrase. Middle can be either after the first auxiliary verb, after be as a finite verb, or before any other finite verb if there is no auxiliary verb.
But avoid placing an adverb between the main verb and the object
Really
Really is an adverb of degree, it's often used to emphasize an adjective or adverb but it can also modify a verb. Unfortunately, regarding positioning, there are no hard or fast rules.