A limited number of Esperanto

adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...

s do not end with the regular adverbial ending ''-e''. Many of them function as more than just adverbs, such as ''hodiaŭ'' "today" (noun or adverb) and ''ankoraŭ'' "yet" or "still" (conjunction or adverb). Others are part of the correlative system, and will not be repeated here. The

word class In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech ( abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are ass ...

"adverb" is not well defined in any language, and it is sometimes difficult to say whether a word is an adverb. The Esperanto suffix ''-e'' is restricted to words that are clearly adverbial.

Adverbs and the suffix ''-aŭ''

Alongside dedicated part-of-speech suffixes of Esperanto, such as adverbial ''-e'', adjectival ''-a'', and nominal ''-o'', the language has a grammatically neutral suffix ''-aŭ'' that has no defined part of speech. Words ending in ''-aŭ'' may be used for multiple grammatical functions. They are typically words whose part of speech is difficult to identify in other languages. The suffix ''-aŭ'' is not lexically productive: it is limited to a closed class of only a few words. To specify the part of speech of these words, the dedicated suffixes may be added to the ''-aŭ''. For example, ''anstataŭ'' "instead of" ( preposition and

conjunction Conjunction may refer to: * Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech * Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator ** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic * Conjunction (astronomy), in which two astronomical bodies ...

) is the base of the adverb ''anstataŭe'' "instead", the adjective ''anstataŭa'' "interim" or "deputy", the verb ''anstataŭi'' "to take the place of", and the noun ''anstataŭo'' "replacement" or "substitution". Most ''-aŭ'' words have inherent adverbial uses; ''anstataŭ'' is one of the few that do not. The adverbial ''-aŭ'' words are: : Because this ''-aŭ'' is a suffix, it may be dropped or replaced by a productive grammatical suffix. For example, alongside ''anstataŭe'' and ''anstataŭigi'' etc. there are ''anstate'', ''anstatigi'' etc.,An exception is the preposition ''antaŭ'' "before". Etymologically this is derived from a root ''ant'', but this root is distinct from the active

present participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

suffix ''-ant-''. In ''antaŭ'' the suffix ''-aŭ'' is obligatory, due to the likelihood of confusion with the participle. and in poetic usage there is ''anstat'' for ''anstataŭ'', but these are rare. :'In 1892 Zamenhof proposed the following change: "Instead of the ending '-aŭ' in various words one can use an apostrophe .g. ''ankor'', ''apen''.. This will increase sonorousness, while not introducing any confusion (because '-aŭ' does not belong to the root, but is only a conditional ending, and thus as easy to leave off as the '-o' of the noun)." But this elision of "-aŭ" from adverbs was not put into practice; only in recent years have a few poets attempted to use it in verse.' :"There have already been attempts to use these words in simple adverbial form (''morge'', ''apene'', ''anke'', ''ankore'', ''almene'', etc.), which would certainly bring along the simple adjectival form (''ankora'', ''almena'', ''apena'') and the nominal form (''hiero'', ''hodio'', ''morgo''). These attempts are even officially tolerated by the Academy ince 1910"

Bare-root adverbs

Other (so-called) adverbs occur as bare roots, without any suffix. Some of these bare-root words are

grammatical particles In grammar, the term ''particle'' (abbreviated ) has a traditional meaning, as a part of speech that cannot be inflected, and a modern meaning, as a function word associated with another word or phrase, generally in order to impart meaning. Altho ...

, in which case true adverbs may be derived from them by adding the suffix ''-e''. They are: : Occasionally grammatically redundant forms such as ''tree'' are seen in poetry.{{rp, 409

Adverbs and the suffix ''-aŭ''

Bare-root adverbs

References

See also