Types of Adverbs in German Grammar
- Locative Adverbs
- Temporal Adverbs
- Modal Adverbs
- Causal Adverbs
- Relative Adverbs
- Conjunctive Adverbs
- Online exercises to improve your German
Adverb types in German grammar
We can sort German adverbs into different types: locative adverbs (Lokaladverbien), temporal adverbs (Temporaladverbien), modal adverbs (Modaladverbien), causal adverbs (Kausaladverbien), relative adverbs (Relativadverbien) and conjunctive adverbs (Konjunktionaladverbien).
Learn about the different types of adverbs in German grammar with Lingolia then put your knowledge to the test in the exercises.
Example
Gestern war ich mit Freunden auf einem Rockkonzert. Rolf und ich kamen später. Unsere Freunde warteten deshalb nicht da auf uns, wo wir uns verabredet hatten. Als wir ankamen, standen unsere Freunde ganz vorn an der Bühne. Aber dort drängten sich die Fans, darum blieben Rolf und ich hinten stehen.
Als das Konzert anfing, begannen die Fans, laut zu kreischen. Man verstand kaum ein Wort, worüber ich mich ärgerte. Aber die Besucher des Konzerts waren größtenteils junge Mädchen, die bereits beim ersten Song reihenweise umfielen. Somit lichteten sich die Reihen und wir standen bald bei unseren Freunden.
Locative Adverbs
Locative adverbs (also known as adverbs of place) answer the questions where? where to? or from where?
- Examples:
- Als wir ankamen, standen unsere Freunde ganz vorn an der Bühne.When we arrived, our friends were standing at the front near the stage.
- Aber dort drängten sich die Fans, darum blieben Rolf und ich hinten stehen.But the crowd was so thick there that Rolf and I stayed standing at the back.
Typical adverbs of place include:
| German | English |
|---|---|
| aufwärts | upwards |
| außen | outside |
| da | here/there |
| dort | there/over there |
| drinnen | inside |
| fort | away |
| hier | here |
| hierhin | up to here |
| hinein | into |
| hinten | behind |
| irgendwo | somewhere |
| links | left (of) |
| nebenan | near |
| oberhalb | above |
| überall | everywhere |
| unten | below |
| vorn | in front |
Temporal Adverbs
Temporal adverbs (also known as adverbs of time and frequency) answer the questions when? how long? how often? until when? or since when?
- Examples:
- Gestern war ich mit Freunden auf einem Rockkonzert.Yesterday I was at a rock concert with some friends.
- Aber die Besucher fielen bereits beim ersten Song reihenweise um.But the audience immediately fell down, row after row, during the first song.
Typical temporal adverbs include:
| German | English |
|---|---|
| bald | soon |
| bereits | already |
| bisher | until now |
| danach | thereafter |
| davor | beforehand |
| einst | once |
| endlich | eventually/finally |
| freitags | on Fridays |
| gestern | yesterday |
| immer | always |
| inzwischen | meanwhile |
| neulich | recently/lately |
| nie | never |
| oft | often |
| regelmäßig | regularly |
| sofort | immediately |
| stets | constantly |
| täglich | daily |
| vorhin | earlier |
| zurzeit | at the time |
Modal Adverbs
Modal adverbs (also known as adverbs of manner) answer the question how? how much? or to what degree?
- Examples:
- Als wir ankamen, standen unsere Freunde ganz vorn an der Bühne.When we arrived, our friends were standing all the way at the front near the stage.
- Man verstand kaum ein Wort.You could hardly hear a word.
- Die Besucher des Konzerts waren größtenteils junge Mädchen, die bereits beim ersten Song reihenweise umfielen.The audience was mostly young girls, who immediately fell down, row after row, during the first song.
Typical modal adverbs include:
| German | English |
|---|---|
| anders | different |
| äußerst | extremely |
| beinahe | nearly |
| bekanntlich | famously |
| ebenfalls | likewise |
| fast | almost |
| folgendermaßen | as follows |
| ganz | completely |
| genauso | exactly like |
| genug | enough |
| gern | gladly |
| größtenteils | mostly |
| hauptsächlich | mainly |
| hoffentlich | hopefully |
| kaum | hardly |
| leider | unfortunately |
| möglicherweise | possibly |
| reihenweise | row after row, by the dozen |
| sehr | very |
| so | so/thus/in that way |
| vielleicht | perhaps |
| wirklich | truly/really |
Causal Adverbs
Causal adverbs present a reason; they answer the question why?
- Examples:
- Unsere Freunde warteten deshalb nicht auf uns.Therefore our friends didn’t wait for us.
- Darum blieben Rolf und ich hinten stehen.That’s why Rolf and I stood at the back.
- Somit lichteten sich die Reihen.And with that, the crowd thinned out.
Typical causal adverbs include:
| German | English |
|---|---|
| also | so, therefore |
| anstandshalber | for decency’s sake |
| dadurch | through that/because of that |
| darum | therefore/because of that |
| demnach | thus/according to that |
| demzufolge | whereby/accordingly |
| deshalb | therefore |
| folglich | consequently |
| sicherheitshalber | preventatively |
| somit | thus/therefore |
| trotzdem | despite that |
Relative Adverbs
We use relative adverbs to introduce a relative clause. Relative adverbs usually refer to part of a sentence.
- Examples:
- Unsere Freunde warteten deshalb nicht da auf uns, wo wir uns verabredet hatten.That’s why our friends didn’t wait for us where we’d arranged to meet.
- Man verstand kaum ein Wort, worüber ich mich ärgerte.You could hardly hear a word, which annoyed me.
Typical relative adverbs include:
| German | English |
|---|---|
| wo | where |
| womit | with which |
| wofür | for which |
| worüber | about which |
Conjunctive Adverbs
Conjunctive adverbs link two clauses together.
When we use a conjunctive adverb, the word order in the sentence changes; we have to place the verb before the subject: conjunctive adverb + conjugated verb + subject + rest of the clause
- Example:
- Dort drängten sich die Fans, darum blieben Rolf und ich hinten stehen.The crowd was really thick there, so Rolf and I stayed standing at the back.
Many causal adverbs are also conjunctive adverbs. Typical conjunctive adverbs include:
| German | English |
|---|---|
| außerdem | besides |
| danach | thereafter |
| deshalb | therefore |
| folglich | consequently |
| schließlich | finally |
| trotzdem | despite that |
| zuvor | previously |
Conjunctional adverbs can never be made comparative. Learn more about conjunctive adverbs in our section all about Conjunctions in German grammar.
To Note
The conjunctional adverbs are the same as the causal adverbs in many cases (deshalb, daher, trotzdem, …). The difference in their categorisation depends on which meaning is more important.
When we want to emphasise that an adverb gives information about a reason, we describe it as a causal adverb.
- Example:
- Rolf und ich kamen später. Unsere Freunde warteten deshalb nicht auf uns.Rolf and I came later. Therefore, our friends didn’t wait for us.
- Aber dort drängten sich die Fans, darum blieben Rolf und ich hinten stehen.But the crowd was thick there, so Rolf and I stayed standing at the back.
If, however, we want to differentiate the type of connection between two parts of a sentence (is it a conjunction, subjunction, or a conjunctional adverb?), then we use the term conjunctional adverb.
- Example:
- Rolf und ich kamen später, deshalb warteten unsere Freunde nicht auf uns.Rolf and I came later, and therefore our friends didn’t wait for us.
- Aber dort drängten sich die Fans, darum blieben Rolf und ich hinten stehen.But the crowd was thick there, so Rolf and I stayed standing at the back.