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Adverbs of degree describe the intensity or degree of an action, adjective, or adverb. They modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Adverbs of manner describe how something was done, while adverbs of degree indicate how much was done.
An adverb of degree is a word that describes the intensity with which an action is completed or the degree of an adjective or other adverb. An example would be the word “completely” in the sentence “completely denied the allegations”. This can be interpreted to mean that the person in question not only denied the allegations but said they were not true in the slightest sense. Other common degree adverbs include extremely, hardly, just, enough, and barely. These are different from adverbs of manner because they indicate how much something was done, not how it was done.
Verbs can be modified using an adverb of degree, which is the easiest way to understand their usage. The line, “He lifted Jack off the ground,” states that Jack was picked up by the person in question. Adding such an adverb, such as “just,” changes the sentence to “He just lifted Jack off the ground,” which alters the meaning by stating how much Jack was lifted off the ground. In this circumstance, the person in question has just managed to get Jack off the ground. Using a different adverb of degree changes the meaning again, “He easily lifted Jack off the ground.”
Adjectives are another part of speech that can be modified by an adverb of degree. This modifies the descriptive word in the same way a verb does. For example, the phrase “He is talkative” can be changed to “He is unusually talkative”, to indicate that the person in question is more talkative than a normal person or more talkative than he normally is. This type of adverb can also be used to show that a description isn’t particularly apt, such as “he’s not lazy.” This means that the person in question is not very lazy at all.
Other adverbs can also be modified using an adverb of degree. This can change a phrase like “Think fast” to “Think extraordinarily fast.” The first version of this sentence says that the woman in question is a fast thinker, but the second version says that she is an unusually or particularly fast thinker. Again, using a word like “quite” instead of “extraordinarily” would alter the meaning of the sentence. This would indicate that you are thinking at a reasonable speed, not particularly fast.
The difference between an adverb of manner and an adverb of degree can be confusing. An adverb of manner describes the way something was done, rather than the degree to which it was done. The phrase “has finished his work” can be altered by an adverb of manner or an adverb of degree. “She has finished her work with joy” adds an adverb of manner, in the sense that she has completed her work in a happy and positive way. “She has completely finished her work” she tells the listener or reader how far she has finished her work, not how it was finished.
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