WORD CLASS: ADVERBS

1. Adverbs are a functional category with no inflection. Nevertheless, they can be modified by means of other adverbs (modifiers)

en Joan és molt alt	John is very tall
em sembla que és poc intel·ligent	I find him/her little intelligent

or even compared:

el meu cotxe corre més ràpid que el teu	my car runs faster than yours
la celebració d’avui ha durat menys que la d’ahir	today’s celebration lasted less (> a shorter time) than yesterday’s

Adverbs share both former features with adjectives (see comparison).

2. In Catalan, as in most Romance languages, most adjectives can be transformed into adverbs by adding them the ending –ment, which is equivalent to English –ly. When the adjective possesses a feminine form, the adverb is formed from it.

Adjective	Adverb	English equivalence
feliç	feliçment	happy > happily
forta	fortament	strong > strongly
breu	breument	brief > briefly; short > shortly
global	globalment	global > globally
constant	constantment	constant > constantly

3. Most adverbs work out predicatively, being complements of verbs.

vull veure’t immediatament ací	I want to see you here at once
el teu comportament no m’agrada gens	I don’t like your behaviour at all

4. However, some modify other adverbs or adjectives, in which case they work out attributively, generally preceding the word they modify:

no és gaire simpàtica	she isn’t quite kind
ho trobo força ridícul	I find it rather absurd

5. From both a semantic and syntactical point of view, certain noun constructions work out as if they were adverbs (in fact, most of them are fossilised). Traditional grammar refers to them as adverbial periphrases:

vindré d’hora	I’ll come up soon
de vegades no et conec	at times I don’t know you
demà passat tenim una reunió	the day after tomorrow we’re having a meeting
es mouen pertot arreu	they move everywhere