How to use adverbs in Japanese?

Japanese adverbs, or 副詞 (transcribed fukishi), have an important mission: providing additional information about verbs, adjectives, and even whole sentences. They help communication flow by making sentences more vivid, precise, and exciting. For example…

• It’s raining, but how is it raining? ぱらぱら (transcribed parapara, meaning “lightly”), しとしと (transcribed shitoshito, meaning “steadily”), or ザーザー (zāzā, “heavily”)?

• Tom speaks Japanese, but how well does he speak? 少し (transcribed sukoshi, meaning “a little”), まあまあ (transcribed māmā, meaning “so so”), or ぺらぺら (transcribed perapera, meaning “fluently”)?

In this article, we’ll talk about how to use different types of adverbs in Japanese sentences. Luckily, Japanese adverbs mostly don’t change their forms, but there are some rules about word order you’ll want to learn! We’ll also talk a bit about how you can create adverbs in Japanese like you might create “slowly” from “slow” in English. Intrigued? Let’s get started!

Just like in English, Japanese adverbs can have a lot of different functions, and each group follows somewhat different rules. In Japanese grammar we typically separate them into three main categories:

• Adverbs of manner answer the question “how?”, like ゆっくり (transcribed yukkuri, meaning “slowly”).

• Adverbs of time and frequency answer the questions “when?”, like もうすぐ (transcribed mōsugu, meaning “soon”), or “how often?”, like ときどき (transcribed tokidoki, meaning “sometimes”) .

• Adverbs of degree answer the question “to what extent?”, like とても (transcribed totemo, meaning “very”).

• Adverbs of correspondence inform the listener what to expect in the rest of the sentence, like もし (transcribed moshi, meaning “if”).

Let’s go through each of these types of adverbs to discover how and where to use them in Japanese sentences!

Japanese adverbs of manner, or 様態副詞 (transcribed yōtai fukushi), are words like ゆっくり (transcribed yukkuri, meaning “slowly”) that provide information on how someone acts or how something happens. Here are some examples.

Adverbs of manner generally modify verbs, for example:

Adverbs of time and frequency provide information about when or how often something happens.

• Adverbs of time tell you about when something happened, for example:

  • さっき

    Transcription: sakki

    Translation: a short while ago
  • かつて

    Transcription: katsute

    Translation: at one point in time, once
  • もうすぐ

    Transcription: mōsugu

    Translation: soon
  • これから

    Transcription: korekara

    Translation: from now on, after this

  Here are some examples of how to use these in a sentence.

  adverb of timeverb

  さっき友達から 電話があった。

  Transcription: Sakki tomodachi kara denwa ga atta.

  Translation: I got a phone call from a friend of mine a short while ago.

  もうすぐ朝が来る。

  Transcription: Mōsugu asa ga kuru.

  Translation: The morning will come soon.

• Adverbs of frequency tell you “how often” something happened, for example:

  • いつも

    Transcription: itsumo

    Translation: always
  • たまに

    Transcription: tamani

    Translation: occasionally

  These adverbs may modify verbs, but can also modify adjectives or even the whole sentence.

  adverb

  メイちゃんは いつも元気だ。

  Transcription: Mei chan wa itsumo genki da.

  Translation: Mei is always full of energy.

  Modifies “full of energy” (adjective)

  たまに寿司屋で食事する。

  Transcription: Tamani sushiya de shokuji suru.

  Translation: Occasionally, I eat at a sushi restaurant.

  Modifies the whole sentence

  Check out this table of Japanese adverbs of frequency to see more adverbs like these!

Adverbs of degree, or 程度副詞 (transcribed teido fukushi) in Japanese, provide information on the extent of a condition. These include words like とても (transcribed totemo, meaning “very”) or 少し (transcribed sukoshi, meaning “a little”).

Adverbs of degree can modify words or phrases from any part of speech that has a range. For example:

• adverbadjective

  今日は かなり 寒い。

  Transcription: Kyō wa kanari samui.

  Translation: It’s quite cold today.
• adverbverb

  ちょっと 疲れた。

  Transcription: Chotto tsukareta.

  Translation: I’m a little tired.
• adverbnoun

  すぐ 上の部屋だ。

  Transcription: Sugu ue no heya da.

  Translation: It’s a room right above this.
• adverbadverb

  たいへん よくできました。

  Transcription: Taihen yoku dekimashita.

  Translation: You did very well.

Check out our Japanese adverb reference sheet to see some adverbs of degree you can use in different contexts.

Japanese 呼応の副詞 (transcribed ko’ō no fukushi), often called “adverbs of correspondence” tell a listener something about how to interpret a clause. You might have heard them called 陳述副詞 (transcribed chinjutsu fukushi, meaning “declarative adverb”) or 文副詞 (transcribed bun fukushi, meaning “sentence adverb”).

We call these adverbs of “correspondence” because they generally signal an incoming or “corresponding” verb form. For example もし (transcribed moshi) signals an incoming conditional verb.

In English, you can’t drop the word “if” from the sentence above, but in Japanese the adverb もし is optional. The verb form is enough to signal that you’re providing a condition, but this little word lets the listener know a condition is incoming,like a little yellow warning flag.

Let’s see some more examples of Japanese adverbs of correspondence in action!

• adverbwish, request, invitation

  ぜひ一緒にハイキングに 行きましょう。

  Transcription: Zehi issho ni haikingu ni ikimashō.

  Translation: By all means, let’s go hiking together.
• adverbpossibility

  もしかすると、来週に延期になる かもしれません。

  Transcription: Moshikasuruto, raishū ni enki ni naru kamo shiremasen.

  Translation: Possibly it might be postponed to next week.
• adverbsimile

  パリで暮らせるなんて、 まるで夢を見ている ようだ。

  Transcription: Pari de kuraseru nante, marude yume o miteiru yōda.

  Translation: That I will be able to live in Paris–it seems as if I’m having a dream.
• adverbnegative predicate

  だいじょうぶ、決して他の人には 話しません。

  Transcription: Daijōbu, kesshite hoka no hito ni wa hanashimasen.

  Translation: Don’t worry, I’ll never tell anyone else.

  Note that 決して (transcribed kesshite), unlike “never,” doesn’t have a power to negate the clause! Only a negative predicate like 話しません (transcribed not tell) can negate the clause!

Adverbs of correspondence are particularly useful in Japanese because the verb (or other predicate) usually comes at the very end of a clause. Since this verb is effectively the most important piece of meaning, adding a “warning flag” before it can help you understand everything that comes before that ending.

Want to see more of them? Have a look at this chart of Japanese adverbs of correspondence!

In this article, we have explored the topic of Japanese adverbs. Here are some important points to remember:

• Adverbs of manner that provide information on how someone acts or something happens.

  • They can come anywhere in the sentence before the verb they modify, as long as they don’t break up a “chunk” or phrase.

  • Many end in と (transcribed to) but this can often be dropped.

  • Those that come from adjectives generally use the endings く (transcribed ku) or に (transcribed ni).

  • Many are “sound symbolic,” using sounds that mimic the action or the sound of the action.

• Adverbs of time and frequency explain “when?” or “how often?” something happens.

• Adverbs of degree answer the question “to what extent?”

• Adverbs of correspondence “warn” the listener that they should expect a certain ending on a clause, and we say they “correspond” to that ending.

Ready to practice what you’ve learned? Check out our Japanese adverb activity sheet! Or, if you’d rather learn some vocabulary, head over to our Japanese adverb reference sheet instead!