Descriptive words: Adverbs

Adverbs are the words that modify verbs (hence the name) and other descriptive words. Adverbs usually express location (place, space), time and frequency, manner. There are not many adverbs in Nûrlâm's dictionary:

New words

  • dhu (down[wards], underneath) – place, direction
  • ghu (above, up[wards]) – place, direction
  • gûth (almost, nearly) – manner
  • idh (out[wards]) – direction
  • krut (back[wards], ago) – both direction and time
  • mag (too [much]) – manner
  • nokh (once, one time) – time, frequency
  • sha (together) – manner
  • sharz (very) – manner
  • tîr (straight) – direction

Making adverbs from adjectives

Very few adverbs have the same form as adjectives (or other word classes):

New words

  • raih (seldom, rarely) < adj. “rare” – time, frequency
  • thil (often, frequently) < adj. “frequent” – time, frequency
  • zârsh (today) < noun – time

In majority of cases you need to add suffix -arz after the adjective (or sometimes other part of speech) to convert it to adverb. If the adjective already has suffix -ûrz, it should be replaced with -arz.

New words

  • aktûrz (precise) ⇒ aktarz (precisely) – manner
  • durt (sure) ⇒ durtarz (surely, of course) – manner
  • farkh (left) ⇒ farkharz (at the left, to the left) – place, direction
  • forg (right) ⇒ forgarz (at the right, to the right) – place, direction
  • hîs (fast, quick) ⇒ hîsarz (quickly) – manner
  • kog (true, real) ⇒ kogarz (truly, really, actually, indeed) – manner
  • mûl (road, path) ⇒ mûlarz (by the way) – manner

Word order

too complex, too small vocabulary at this point to show all possibilities, leave only first 4 points, repeat the whole in another lesson above adverbials' word order

The following rules are applied to position of adverbs in sentence:

  1. if adverb modifies the verb, it should be placed after the verb and it's object: the fire quickly burns the forestghâshum ghâshâ taum hîsarz;
  2. if adverb modifies the adjective that precedes the noun, then adverb is placed before the adjective: very old dirtsharz dug;
  3. if adverb modifies the adjective that is placed after the noun, then adverb is placed after the adjective: really hot waternîn gashûrz kogarz;
  4. if adjective has a modifying adverb, it cannot join the noun as a clitic: almost black bloodghor mor gûth / gûth mor ghor (not “ghormor gûth”);
  5. if several adverbs follow the same word, they are ordered as Place–Manner–Time: warriors are going back together today ⇒ mauh ukhû krut sha zârsh;
  6. if several adverbs precede the same word, they are ordered as Time–Manner–Place, which rarely happens though;
  7. if there are too many adverbs describing the same verb, then some of them (usually referring exact time) may precede the subject, while others are placed after the verb. They should be ordered in the whole sentence as Time–Manner–Place, but this rule is not very strict.

Exercise 1

Translate from English into Nûrlâm:

  1. come together
  2. fly up

Exercise 2

Translate from Nûrlâm:

Exercise 3

Make new adverb from adjectives you have learnt before:

lessons/adverbs_2.txt · Last modified: 2023/10/02 00:08 by 127.0.0.1