If you want to sound more natural and precise in English, learning more complicated vocabulary isn’t always the answer. Sometimes, a small word can completely change the meaning or tone of a sentence. Compare:

My English has improved.

My English has improved significantly.

Or:

I’ll do it.

I’ll definitely do it.

The basic message is similar, but the adverb adds important information: how much something has improved, how certain we are, how strongly we feel about something, or how a situation has developed.

Adverbs are therefore an important part of everyday English, but they can also be surprisingly tricky. It isn’t enough to know what an adverb means. You also need to know where to put it in a sentence and which words it naturally combines with. In this article, we’ll look at ten useful adverbs for B2 learners — definitely, probably, apparently, significantly, generally, particularly, increasingly, relatively, absolutely and eventually — and see how you can start using them in your own English.

What exactly is an adverb?

An adverb is a word that gives us more information about a verb, an adjective, another adverb or sometimes an entire sentence. For example:

She speaks slowly.

Here, slowly tells us how she speaks.

It’s incredibly expensive.

In this sentence, incredibly tells us to what degree something is expensive.

Adverbs can also express the speaker’s attitude towards an entire statement:

Apparently, they’re moving to London.

Here, apparently shows that this is information we have heard or discovered rather than something we know for certain.

Many English adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective:

• quick → quickly

• careful → carefully

• significant → significantly

• particular → particularly

However, this rule doesn’t always work. Some common adverbs have the same form as the adjective. For example:

He drives fast.

NOT He drives fastly.

She works hard.

Be careful with hardly: it exists, but it has a completely different meaning.

She works hard. = She puts a lot of effort into her work.

She hardly works. = She does almost no work.

There are a few other differences worth remembering. We say:

I arrived late.

Whereas lately means recently:

I haven’t seen her lately.

And one of the most important irregular forms is good → well:

She’s a good tennis player.

She plays tennis well.

These are good examples of why it’s better to learn adverbs through real sentences rather than simply memorising the rule “add -ly”.

Expressing certainty: definitely and probably

Two adverbs you’re likely to use all the time are definitely and probably. Both allow you to express how certain you are, but there is an important difference between them.

I’ll definitely go.

This expresses a high degree of certainty about your decision.

I’ll probably go.

This means you think it is likely, but there is still some uncertainty.

Their position is also worth noticing. With an ordinary verb, they normally come before the main verb:

I definitely agree with you.

She probably knows the answer.

With the verb be, they usually come after it:

It’s definitely worth visiting.

She’s probably tired.

If there is an auxiliary verb, they normally come after the first auxiliary:

I’ll definitely call you.

I’ll probably stay at home tonight.

Try making these adverbs personal. Think about your plans and complete the sentences:

This year, I’ll definitely…

This weekend, I’ll probably…

Creating sentences that are true for you makes it much easier to remember not only the meaning of a word, but also its natural position.

Talking about information with apparently

Apparently is particularly useful when you want to talk about information you’ve heard, read or discovered without presenting it as something you personally know to be true. For example:

Apparently, they’re getting married.

This suggests that someone has told you this or that you’ve heard about it somewhere. Similarly, you might say:

Apparently, the restaurant is really good.

You might use this sentence when somebody has recommended a restaurant but you haven’t tried it yourself.

Apparently often appears at the beginning of a sentence, especially in conversation, although it can also appear in the middle:

He’s apparently leaving the company.

To practise it, think about something you’ve recently heard about a person, place, film, company or situation and start your sentence with:

Apparently, …

Describing changes with significantly and increasingly

If you want to describe change more precisely, significantly and increasingly are two extremely useful adverbs.

Significantly means that a difference or change is large enough to be noticeable. For example:

My English has improved significantly.

Prices have increased significantly.

The second option is significantly cheaper.

It frequently appears with verbs such as increase, decrease, improve and change, as well as with comparative forms such as significantly better, significantly higher and significantly more expensive.

Increasingly, on the other hand, describes something that is becoming more common, important or noticeable over time.

People are increasingly working from home.

We’re becoming increasingly dependent on technology.

English is increasingly important in my job.

You’ll often find it in combinations such as increasingly common, increasingly difficult, increasingly popular and increasingly important.

Both words are particularly useful when discussing society, technology, work and trends, but they can also be personalised. You could describe something in your own life that has changed significantly or something that is becoming increasingly important to you.

Making generalisations with generally

When we make statements about habits, tendencies or typical situations, generally allows us to avoid sounding too absolute. Compare:

I don’t eat fast food.

I generally don’t eat fast food.

The second sentence suggests that this is normally true, but there may occasionally be exceptions.

We can use it in sentences such as:

I generally work from home.

People generally don’t like being criticised.

Generally, people are quite friendly here.

It can appear before the main verb or at the beginning of a sentence when we are making a broader comment. This is an especially useful adverb for expressing opinions because real life is rarely as black and white as words like always and never suggest.

Being more precise with particularly and relatively

Particularly is similar to especially and is useful when you want to focus attention on one thing.

I’m particularly interested in languages.

I particularly enjoyed the last part of the film.

One pattern worth learning as a complete chunk is not particularly.

I’m not particularly interested in football.

I wasn’t particularly impressed.

It’s not particularly difficult.

These are natural ways of expressing a moderate or softened negative opinion.

Relatively is useful when something is being judged in comparison with something else.

The exam was relatively easy.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the exam was objectively easy. It means that it was quite easy compared with another exam, with what you expected or with similar situations.

The same applies to expressions such as relatively inexpensive, relatively small, relatively common and relatively simple. We can also use it before another adverb:

The problem can be solved relatively easily.

These two adverbs are useful because they help you move away from very simple descriptions. Instead of saying that something is simply easy, difficult, interesting or expensive, you can communicate more precisely what you mean.

Adding emphasis with absolutely

Absolutely is one of the most useful adverbs when you want to add strong emphasis. You can use it with verbs:

I absolutely love this place.

I absolutely agree.

Or with adjectives:

You’re absolutely right.

That’s absolutely ridiculous.

It is particularly common with strong or extreme adjectives. Instead of constantly relying on very, you can start noticing combinations such as absolutely exhausted, absolutely freezing, absolutely impossible and absolutely enormous.

Compare:

very tired → absolutely exhausted

very cold → absolutely freezing

Learning these combinations as complete units will make your English more varied and natural.

Telling stories with eventually

Finally, eventually is a very useful adverb for talking about outcomes. It means in the end, particularly when something happens after some time, difficulty or a series of previous events.

We got lost, but we eventually found the hotel.

She eventually decided to leave.

They eventually reached an agreement.

It often comes before the main verb:

I eventually realised I was wrong.

Although it can also appear at the beginning of the sentence:

Eventually, we found a solution.

One important point for speakers of several European languages is that English eventually does not mean possibly. It refers to what finally happens after a period of time.

To make it personal, think of something that took you a long time to achieve, understand, find or decide and complete the sentence:

I eventually…

Adverb position: learn the patterns

As you’ve probably noticed from these examples, there isn’t one position in the sentence that works for every adverb. Compare:

I definitely agree.

My English has improved significantly.

It’s relatively easy.

Technology is becoming increasingly important.

Apparently, they’ve changed their plans.

The position depends partly on what the adverb is modifying and on the type of adverb you’re using.

That’s why learning a word together with the patterns it commonly appears in is much more effective than memorising an isolated translation.

Instead of learning only significantly, learn:

improve significantly

increase significantly

significantly better

Instead of memorising particularly, remember:

particularly useful

not particularly interested

And with increasingly, learn combinations such as:

increasingly common

increasingly important

This way, you’re learning not only what the word means but also how to put it into a sentence when you actually need it.

The final step is to personalise these patterns. Make sentences about your own habits, plans, opinions and experiences. What will you definitely do this year? What will you probably do this weekend? What has changed significantly in your life? What are you particularly interested in? What do you absolutely love?

The more personal the examples are, the more likely you are to remember and eventually use these words spontaneously.

Practise with the worksheets

If you’d like to practise what you’ve learned, I’ve prepared two worksheets to accompany this lesson. The first contains activities based on the ten adverbs from the video, with practice focusing on meaning, sentence position and use in context. The second worksheet introduces more useful B2-level adverbs to help you expand your active vocabulary.

You can download both worksheets here.

And when you practise, don’t stop at completing the exercises: use the adverbs to create sentences about your own life, experiences and opinions. Understanding a word when you see it is only the beginning. The real goal is to make it part of the English you can actually use.