Adverbs of Time

What are Adverbs of Time?

There are two official types of adverbs of time.

a. “how long” adverbs

How long adverbs are used to describe "for how long something happens".

Some examples of how long adverbs included the following:

for a year, for a month, for a day, for an hour, for a second, for a minute, etc.

examples:

          "I have been sitting here for two hours."

          "She has been living here for seven years already."

The underlined phrases are the “how long adverbs", and they modify their respective verbs, "have been sitting" and "has been living".

b. “when” adverbs

These adverbs are used to tell "when", or "on what specific time something happens" like:

today, yesterday, tomorrow, in the afternoon, in the night, at one o’clock, at seven pm, next year, next month, next week, etc.

examples:

          "Classes will start next week."

          "I saw him at the mall yesterday."

The underlined phrase and word are “when” adverbs, and they tell when something happens: "When will classes start?", or "When did I see him at the mall?".