In this guide
I like the small details people include when they describe an ordinary day. “I drink tea” gives you the basic action. Add “often,” and you learn something about the person’s routine; add “a little,” and you learn about the amount instead. It’s a small change in wording, but it gives you a different picture of what they mean.
Words such as “often,” “a little” and “quietly” are adverbs: they add information about an action or a description. Japanese has words that do this too. Once you can say something simple, such as that you drink tea, an adverb gives you a way to make it more specific.
We’ll work with everyday situations to help you choose the adverb that fits what you want to say. Along the way, you’ll learn how common adverbs fit into a sentence, then try adding a useful detail to a routine of your own.
Japanese adverbs: three questions that help
An adverb adds information about an action or a description. To choose one, ask what you want to tell someone: how often, how much, or how?
To say how often something happens, try いつも (always, or as a habit), よく (often) and ときどき (sometimes). This is frequency. 飲みます means “drink,” and を marks what you drink. Japanese often leaves the person unspoken; we’ll understand these examples as “I.”
お茶をよく飲みます。
I often drink tea.
If the important detail is a small amount of tea, use 少し, “a little,” instead:
お茶を少し飲みます。
I drink a little tea.
Words for how much or how strongly something applies describe degree. とても means “very.” Put it with 熱い, “hot,” and you describe the tea’s heat:
お茶はとても熱いです。
The tea is very hot.
For how you do something, think of speaking quietly. 静かに means “quietly,” and 話します means “speak.” This kind of detail is called manner.
静かに話します。
I speak quietly.
A word can answer different questions in different sentences. 少し can describe a small amount you drink, for example, or a small degree of heat in 少し熱い, “a little hot.”
| Question | Useful words | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| How often? | いつも・よく・ときどき | Frequency |
| How much / how strongly? | 少し・とても | Amount or degree |
| How? | 静かに | Manner |
Choose a habit detail
Tea is something you drink often. You want to describe that habit.
Which sentence fits?
Use “early” and “quiet” with an action
いつも and とても are ready to use. You can also make adverbs from adjectives, the words that describe things. Japanese has two adjective groups, with a different change for each.
早い → 早く: go to bed early
早い is an い-adjective meaning “early.” Replace its final い with く to describe an action: 早い → 早く. 寝ます means “go to bed” or “sleep,” and 今日 means “today.”
今日は早く寝ます。
I’ll go to bed early today.
You’ve kept the idea of “early” and used it with going to bed. Try making the change yourself.
An early bedtime
Use 早い, “early,” to say you’ll go to bed early today. Type its adverb form in kanji or hiragana.
今日は＿寝ます。
静か → 静かに: speak quietly
静か means “quiet.” It belongs to the な-adjective group: before a noun, you use な, as in 静かな部屋, “a quiet room.” To describe an action, add に to 静か instead.
静かに話します。
I speak quietly.
The quiet room and quiet speaking share the same quality. The adjective describes the room; 静かに describes how you speak. Start with 静か and add に, leaving out the な used before a noun.
Speak quietly
静か belongs to the な-adjective group. Use it to describe how you speak.
Which word completes ＿話します?
Learn the adjective group with each new word. きれい, “clean” or “beautiful,” ends in い but belongs to the な-adjective group, so its adverb is きれいに. It’s useful for neat writing: 字 means “characters” or “handwriting,” and 書きます means “write.”
字をきれいに書きます。
I write characters neatly.
| Adjective group | Change | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| い-adjective | Replace the final い with く. | 早い → 早く |
| な-adjective | Add に to the word without な. | 静か → 静かに・きれい → きれいに |
Put the adverb with what it describes
An adverb goes before what it describes. 静かに goes before 話します because it tells us how you speak. There can be more than one natural place in a longer sentence.
本 means “book” and 読みます means “read.” Both of these describe quiet reading:
本を静かに読みます。
I read a book quietly.
静かに本を読みます。
I read a book quietly.
静かに can go before or after 本を. Keep 本を together: を marks the book as what you read. You can move that whole pair past the adverb without breaking it apart.
Find both natural positions
Choose every sentence that says “I read a book quietly.”
Which word orders work?
Now imagine you’re talking in a library. You want to say you’ll speak very quietly. とても can strengthen 静かに, just as it strengthened 熱い in “very hot”:
とても静かに話します。
I’ll speak very quietly.
とても tells us how quiet, and 静かに tells us how you’ll speak. That’s an adverb describing another adverb. Compare よく in our tea sentence: お茶をよく飲みます describes how often the drinking happens.
Learn the word with the action
A familiar adverb can have more than one English meaning. We used 早く for an early bedtime; it can also mean “quickly.” Imagine you’re running late and need to eat breakfast in a hurry. 食べます means “eat.”
朝ごはんを早く食べます。
I’ll eat breakfast quickly.
The hurry makes “quickly” fit. A conversation about mealtimes could make the same sentence mean eating early. The ending change stays the same; the conversation helps you choose the meaning.
There’s also a useful irregular form: いい, “good,” becomes よく. We’ve used よく for “often,” but it can mean “well” or “carefully” too. I’d learn it with a few phrases rather than one English translation.
わかります means “understand.” After a clear explanation, you might say:
よくわかります。
I understand it well.
Here よく describes how well you understand the explanation. In お茶をよく飲みます, it describes how often you drink. The action and the conversation help you tell those meanings apart.
For careful attention, try this request before setting off on a trip. 地図 means “map,” and 見てください is a whole expression meaning “please look.”
地図をよく見てください。
Please look carefully at the map.
よく makes the request more specific: look carefully. For more requests like this, the guide to saying “please” in Japanese explains the verb forms and when a softer question helps.
Read よく with the situation
Use the situations we just met: understanding an explanation, checking a map before a trip, and describing a tea habit.
Choose every example where よく means “well” or “carefully,” rather than “often.”
From “not often” to “not at all”
A negative sentence can be precise too. For a polite verb negative, change ます to ません: 飲みます, “drink,” becomes 飲みません, “don’t drink.” Now you can describe two different coffee habits.
あまり with a negative means “not often” or “not much” here:
コーヒーをあまり飲みません。
I don’t drink coffee very often.
I find あまり useful for routines because it leaves room for an occasional cup. If coffee is something you never drink in your current routine, choose ぜんぜん with the negative instead:
コーヒーをぜんぜん飲みません。
I don’t drink coffee at all.
That makes the stronger claim: no coffee. In both patterns, the negative ending is in 飲みません. Keep it when you add あまり or ぜんぜん.
Coffee once in a while
You have coffee now and then, but not very often.
Which sentence describes your habit?
Give your own routine one useful detail
Start with a routine you can already describe. 音楽を聞きます means “I listen to music.” If the important detail is that you rarely listen, you can say:
音楽をあまり聞きません。
I don’t listen to music very often.
For your own sentence, the important detail might be the amount you do, how you do it, or when you do it. Choose the one you’d actually want to tell someone.
Bunpo Check can suggest grammar and spelling changes to the Japanese you write.
Make one sentence more precise
Choose a routine you can already say in Japanese. Add one detail about how often, how much, how or when you do it. Your sentence can be positive or negative. Put only the finished Japanese sentence in the field.
Copy your Japanese text, then paste it into the checker. This writing space does not assess or save your text.
Once you’ve written it, say its meaning to yourself in English. Does it tell someone what you wanted them to know? お茶を少し飲みます is enough for someone who means a little tea. The sentence doesn’t have to grow much to become more useful.
About the author
B. Rungswell
B. Rungswell is the editor of the Bunpo Check blog and a native English speaker who has passed JLPT N1. Drawing on many years of life in Japan and experience working at Japanese companies, Rungswell writes practical guides to Japanese grammar for English-speaking learners.