Know more about adverbs in japanese with examples!
Many may already know that adverbs are invariable words that modify or add meaning to verbs and adjectives. Japanese adverbs can indicate time, frequency, and various other situations depending on the sentence.
Hover over Japanese symbols to see their pronunciation and translation.
In fact, the Japanese language is extremely rich in adverbs. There are many adverbs of many different types. Also, Japanese adverbs are used everywhere, whether formally or informally. This challenges us to study and learn as much as possible.
Because of this, I decided to separate a list of the most used Japanese adverbs, at least the ones I had more contact with while studying Japanese. Many of these Japanese adverbs have already been studied in previous articles.
List of adverbs in Japanese
Japanese adverbs of time
今 – Agora, neste momento
今日 – Hoje, neste dia
昨日 – Ontem
明日 – Amanhã
まだ – Mas, ainda, até agora, apesar disso, todavia
もう – Anteriormente, antes de certo tempo, já, agora mesmo
いつ – Quando, logo, enquanto que
Japanese adverbs of place
下に – Em baixo de, sob
上に – Em cima de, sobre
そばに – Perto de, junto de
前に – Em frente a, na frente de
後ろに – Atrás, atrás de
Japanese adverbs of manner
きっと – Certamente
ゆっくり – Lentamente, devagar
どんなに – Como, de que maneira
Japanese adverbs of quantity
よく – Quanto, bem, bom, bastante
何 – O que
いくら – Quanto custa, quanto é, quanto
とても – Muito
大変 – Muito, extremamente, sério, grave
たくさん – Muito, bastante, extremamente
十分 – Bastante, suficiente
だけ – Somente, unicamente, só
少し – Um pouco
ちょっと – Um pouco, especialmente, de preferência, particularmente
もっと – Mais
How to use adverbs in Japanese
Usually Japanese adverbs are used before the verbs or adjectives they refer to. For example, in たくさん食べる o advérbio japonês (たくさん – bastante) aparece antes do verbo (食べる – comer). Abaixo seguem mais alguns exemplos.
私はテレビをテーブルの前におく。
私はゆっくり歩きます。
ちょっと待ってください。
彼は静かに勉強します。
Turning adjectives into adverbs
Once again I discovered something very interesting in the Japanese language. Many adverbs can be created from Japanese adjectives. The method is very similar to what we do in Portuguese.
In many Portuguese words, we just need to add the ending -mente, after an adjective. In this way, the adjective easy becomes the adverb easily, fast becomes quickly, and so on.
In Japanese, just add the ending ku To the Japanese adjectives iOr the particle ni To the Japanese adjectives in. In this way, we can create Japanese adverbs for each type of adjective. Let's see the examples:
新しい change to 新しく
強い change to 強く
簡単な change to 簡単に
便利な change to 便利に
Now you can practice turning all the adjectives you know into adverbs in Japanese.
Other types of adverbs in Japanese
Para terminar este artigo sobre os advérbios em japonês, agrupei vários deles, uma vez que não consegui classifica-los nos tópicos anteriores. Agora, vamos conhecer outros caminhos para a criação de advérbios e conhecer os advérbios japoneses “untranslatable“.
As if the huge amount of adverbs in Japanese were not enough, especially the adverbs created from adjectives, I discovered that the Japanese language allows using other resources to create new adverbs.
As my knowledge on this subject is short, I will describe what I learned in a very brief way. Right?
Japanese adverbs with the suffix tekini
Some words can be turned into adverbs by adding the suffix tekini.
具体 turns into 具体的に
質問の内容が具体的に伝わるように書いてください。
Verbs with function Japanese adverbs
Some verbs, when used in the te form, may occasionally be used as adverbs.
喜ぶ change to 喜んで.
喜んで行きます。
喜んでお手伝いしますよ。
Repeating and creating Japanese adverbs
Some Japanese adverbs can be created from the repetition of a word or sound. Many students tend to confuse these expressions with onomatopoeias, but it is worth remembering that onomatopoeias are usually written in katakana and have a different context.
しばしば – Frequentemente, muitas vezes…
彼はしばしば恋に落ちる。
データはしばしば不正確だ。
いちいち – Um por um, cada, cada um, tudo…
彼の言うことはいちいち頭に来る。
時々 – Algumas vezes, ocasionalmente, as vezes, frequentemente, com frequência…
時々テレビを見る。
彼は時々希望を失う。
The Japanese letter 々 is used to indicate the repetition of the same kanji. It's like 時々 is 時時.
The untranslatable Japanese adverbs
This story of untranslatable Japanese adverbs was just a joke. In fact, these adverbs do not have a clear translation for a word in Portuguese. I will show you four common cases of these types of Japanese adverbs.
やっぱり
This word is just a colloquial form of やはり. Ele é um advérbio usado com significado de “Justamente como pensei”, “Como era esperado” ou “Apesar de tudo”.
彼はやっぱりゲイですね
まさか
Esse advérbio japonês tem um significado parecido com “não me diga!”, “impossível!”, “Só pode ser piada!”, “Inacreditável!” ou “Você está tirando onda com a minhacara?!”. Até onde pude perceber, este advérbio possui uma conotação meio negativa.
まさか犯人はクリス？
流石に
Algumas traduções aproximadas deste advérbio japonês seriam “como deve ser esperado”, “isto é algo muito natural”, “de fato” ou “sem dúvida”.
流石に彼は速く走る。
とにかく
Tonikaku pode significar “de qualquer forma”, “de qualquer modo”, “de modo geral”, “de uma forma ou de outra”, “em todo caso”…
とにかく家へ帰る。
Kanji calligraphy exercise
Below are the Japanese ideographic symbols used in this article. Selecting the desired kanji, copy and paste them into Worksheet for Kana and Kanji Practice , a new window will open where you can view the printable file and practice Japanese calligraphy by covering the gray symbols and then trying to write yourself. Just print and practice.
| 今 | 日 | 昨 | 明 | 下 |
| 上 | 前 | 後 | 何 | 大 |
| 変 | 十 | 分 | 私 | 歩 |
| 待 | 彼 | 静 | 勉 | 強 |
| 食 | 新 | 簡 | 単 | 便 |
| 利 | 具 | 体 | 的 | 質 |
| 問 | 内 | 容 | 伝 | 書 |
| 喜 | 行 | 手 | 恋 | 落 |
| 不 | 正 | 確 | 言 | 頭 |
| 来 | 見 | 時 | 希 | 望 |
| 失 | 流 | 石 | 速 | 走 |
| 家 | 帰 |