What's an adverb?
Adverbs describe when, where or how something happens. They refer either to another word in the sentence (such as the verb) or to the sentence as a whole. Unlike adjectives, they don't refer to someone or something, in other words nouns or pronouns.
| Adjective: | das frische Brötchen | |
| ("frisch" (fresh) describes "das Brötchen" – a noun.) | ||
| Adverb: | Harry geht schnell. | |
| ("schnell" (quickly) refers to "gehen" (to go) and doesn’t describe "Harry", the noun, but the manner in which he is going.) |
Temporal Adverbs
Temporal adverbs give more information about when something happened. They indicate a point in time, a length of time, or frequency.
| gestern | yesterday | |
| heute | today | |
| morgen | tomorrow | |
| übermorgen | the day after tomorrow |
|
"früh am Morgen" or "morgen früh" The adverb "morgen" (tomorrow) is written in lower case. The noun, "der Morgen" (morning), is capitalized. So: heute Morgen (= earlier today) |
Here are some other adverbs of time that you already know:
| endlich | Endlich (sind wir) auf der Autobahn! | |
| immer | Mein Tag ist immer gleich. | |
| zuerst | … zuerst das Wetter … |
More:
Adverbs can be placed at the beginning of a sentence to give them special emphasis. In this case, the subject is placed after the conjugated verb.
Wir haben heute frische Brötchen.
Heute haben wir frische Brötchen.
This sentence structure emphasizes the adverb "heute". That could, for example, mean that there were no fresh rolls yesterday, but there are some today.