Spanish Compound Adverbs


In Spanish, an adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective or another adverb. Most compound adverbs (adverbios compuestos) in Spanish are formed by adding the suffix -mente to the feminine singular form of the adjective. This ending is equivalent to ‘-ly’ in English.

Examples:
El auto se vendió fácilmente.
The car was easily sold.

Manuela está felizmente casada.
Manuela is happily married.

If two or more adverbs ending in -mente are connected by conjunctions such as pero, ni, or y, the suffix -mente is only added to the last adverb.

Example:
Luisa cocina lenta y cuidadosamente.
Luisa cooks slowly and carefully.

Adverbs that do not end in -mente in Spanish Table

AdverbsMeaning
Abajobelow
Allíthere
Aquíhere
Arribaabove
Hoytoday
Mañanatomorrow
Malbadly
Nuncanever
Siemprealways

Important:

  • An adverb remains invariant, in other words, it does not change in form.
  • If the basic adjective has a written accent mark, the accent mark remains in place.
  • If two or more adverbs ending in -mente are connected by conjunctions such as pero, ni, or y, the suffix -mente is only added to the last adverb.
search previous next tag category expand menu location phone mail time cart zoom edit close