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Lesson Plan July 11, 2025

Topic: Word Order 2: Verb + Adverb

In this lesson you can review the word order of verbs and adverbs in an English sentence.

Section A: Introduction

In English, there are a number of rules about the position of adverbs in a sentence.

• Adverbs tell us how something happens go after the verbs or after the object

  • Alison is speaking very quietly.

  • He plays football well.

• Sometimes the adverb can be placed before a verb + object to add emphasis

  • It started to rain, so he quickly opened his umbrella.

  • She slowly got out of bed.

• But if there is no object, the adverb usually goes after the verb.

  • She sings beautifully. (She beautifully sings.)

• These common adverbs are almost always placed AFTER the verb: well, badly, hard, fast

• Other adverbs, including adverbs of frequency, follow different rules. These adverbs include: always, often, usually, probably, all, definitely, never, ever, already, both, hardly ever, even (Study Section B)

Section B: Context and Examples

With one-word verbs

• BEFORE the verb

  • Jacob always gets home very late.

  • I never drink coffee in the evening.

  • She hardly ever speaks to me. (NOTE: ‘hardly ever’ focuses on frequency)

With the verb ‘be’

• After the verb

  • Carol is always late.

  • Are you ever ill?

  • Jack was probably at home this morning.

With multiple-word verbs

• After the first verb

  • I can never understand her.

  • Have you ever been to Shiga?

  • Look at her. She’s definitely been working too hard.

• Note: the adverb probably goes before a negative

  • I probably won’t see you at the part tonight. (I won’t probably see you.)

Lesson Notes

Words & Phrases

• Do you know which song belongs to which bird?

• Do you know which bird sings which song?

• Can you tell which song goes with which bird?

Verb + Adverb

• ”‘John can run really fast’ is correct, and ‘John can really run fast’ is also correct

• “Can run really fast” is the neutral, natural phrasing.

• “Can really run fast” puts emphasis on “really” and “can”, often showing surprise or admiration.

• ‘Thomas can beat me at chess easily’ and ‘Thomas can easily beat me at chess’ are both correct

• In “can easily beat me,” placing easily earlier puts more focus on how effortlessly Thomas wins.

• “John probably isn’t working right now.”

• This follows the common word order for adverbs of probability (like probably, certainly, definitely) in English, which usually go:

• subject + adverb + auxiliary verb + main verb

• “Probably, John isn’t working right now.” is acceptable but sounds more formal or written; less common in everyday speech.

• There’s a slight difference in emphasis between these two sentence. For most situations, especially when speaking naturally, both versions would be understood the same.

• I can only read with glasses.

• This emphasizes “only read” — meaning reading is the one activity that requires glasses (maybe you can do other things without them).

• I can read only with glasses.

• This emphasizes “only with glasses” — meaning you cannot read at all unless you are wearing glasses.