Adverbs of Manner

Italian adverbs
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Avverbi di maniera

Adverbs of manner express how the action of a verb occurs. In English, the vast majority of adverbs of manner end in -ly, whereas in Italian, they mostly end in –mente. In Italian (and English), many of these adverbs are created from adjectives, as follows.

Most of the time, take the feminine adjective and add –mente:

Masculine Feminine   Adverb   Translation
aperto aperta   apertamente   openly
attento attenta   attentamente   carefully
felice felice   felicemente   happily
lento lenta   lentamente   slowly
risoluto risoluta   risolutamente   resolutely
stanco stanca   stancamente   tiredly

Exception: For adjectives that end in –le, –lo, or –re, the final vowel is dropped before adding –mente:

facile facile   facilmente   easily
particolare particolare   particolarmente   particularly

Adverbs that describe body movement or position are often created by adding –oni to verb stems (infinitive minus ending) and nouns.

      Adverb   Translation
ciondolare ciondol-   ciondoloni   with arms dangling
gatto gatt-   gattoni   catlike

 A few Italian adverbs of manner aren’t derived from other words:

bene   well
come   as, like
insieme   together
male   poorly, badly
meglio   better
peggio   worse
volentieri   gladly

 Related lessons

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Italian adverbs of manner

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