What are adverbs of time?
Adverbs of time tell us at what time (when) or for how long (duration) something happens or is the case. There is also a specific category of time adverbs that describe frequency, or how often something happens or is the case; however, their usage is a bit more complex, so we will examine those in a separate section.
Positioning
Adverbs of time are most often placed at the end of a sentence. For example:
• “I’m going to the movies tomorrow.” (When are you going? Tomorrow.)
• “She left yesterday.” (When did she leave? Yesterday.)
• “We are eating now.” (When are we eating? Now.)
However, we can sometimes place adverbs of time at the beginning of the sentence to put an extra emphasis on the time or duration being described. They are usually offset by a comma if appearing at the beginning of the sentence, although this is not always necessary. For example:
• “Next year, I’m going to run for president.” (Emphasizes a point in time.)
• “Now, I have to start the whole project again from scratch.” (Emphasizes now in a sequence of events.)
• “For 17 years we’ve been dating, and not once has he proposed!” (Emphasizes the duration of time.)
Special exceptions
The majority of time-related adverbs appear at the end of a sentence (or the beginning, for emphasis), but there are a few exceptions to this rule.
Later
The adverb later, in addition to its normal placement at the end or beginning of a sentence, can also be placed immediately before (or sometimes after) the main verb. This creates a formal tone to the sentence, as might be found in official reports or in newspaper articles. Compare these three sentences:
• “She spoke to an adviser later.” (A simple sentence with no particular emphasis.)
• “Later, she spoke to an adviser.” (Extra emphasis on when she spoke to the advisor.)
• “She later spoke to an adviser.” (Slightly formal tone, as might be used by someone reporting the sequence of events to someone else.)
Later can also appear immediately after the main verb in the middle of a sentence, where it often functions as a comparative adverb, comparing the lateness of the verb’s action to someone or something else by using the word than. For example:
• “He arrived later than everyone else.”
• “I’ll be a bit later than I originally expected.”
Yet
As an adverb of time, the word yet is used primarily in negative sentences or in questions. It can appear at the end of the sentence, or it can follow the word not before the main verb in a negative sentence. It does not appear at the beginning of the sentence (except when it functions as a conjunction, rather than an adverb). Here are some examples:
• “He hasn’t gone to the doctor yet.”
• “We have not yet sold our house.”
• “Have you finished your homework yet?”
However, yet can also be used after auxiliary verbs and before the main verb in positive sentences to talk about a future possibility, as in:
• “I have yet to decide whether I’m leaving.”
• “They may yet file for bankruptcy.”
• “Things could yet improve in the region.”
• “We might yet be able to strike a deal with them.”
Still
The adverb of time still is used to describe something that is continuously happening. Still comes before the main verb of the sentence in questions, if used before not in negative sentences, or if used after auxiliary verbs in positive sentences about the future:
• “Are you still working on that project?”
• “He’s still not sure about how to proceed.”
• “I am still thinking about moving to Europe.”
The adverb still can also be used with the modal auxiliary verbs may, might, can, and could to describe something that was a possibility in the past, and which could possibly happen in the future. In this case, it has the same meaning as yet, and the two are all but interchangeable (though yet sounds a little bit more formal). Here are the same sentences we looked at with yet, but this time using still instead:
• “They may still file for bankruptcy.”
• “Things could still improve in the region.”
• “We might still be able to strike a deal with them.”
Adverbs of Duration – For and Since
When we want to talk about for how long something happens or is the case, we generally use the prepositions for and sincealong with a determiner of time. When we use for, we pair it with a word or words that specify a length of time; with since, on the other hand, we use specific points in time. Both usually occur at the end of the sentence, unless they are being followed by infinitive or prepositional phrases. And, as we’ve seen already, they can also be used at the beginning of the sentence to add emphasis.
Here are a few examples of each:
for
• “I have been running for three hours.”
• “They have been waiting for two months to be seen by a doctor.”
• “For 10 years, we’ve seen this country’s economy continue to decline.”
since
• “Our computer systems have been having issues since last week.”
• “We have been looking since September for a place to live.”
• “Since we were kids, we’ve always dreamed of being astronauts.”
(The phrase we were kids in this sentence might seem like it should be “the time when we were kids,” but because it is used with since, the shorter version is acceptable.)
In Proper Order
Remember, adverbs of time can be used to describe three different aspects: duration, frequency, and certain points in time (when). If we are using multiple adverbs of time in the same sentence, and if there is no special emphasis given to one aspect over another, then that is the order in which they generally appear. Even if one of the three aspects is omitted, the other two still maintain their position in relation to each other. Here are some examples:
• “I went door to door for two hours every afternoon last year.”
• “He will be traveling for two years after college.”
• “The train runs hourly in the fall.”
If one aspect of time is being given particular emphasis in the sentence, then it generally comes later in the order. Let’s look at the first sentence arranged in a different order:
• “I went door to door every afternoon last year for two hours.”
As we can see, for two hours is given stronger emphasis than either every afternoon or last year.
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