An Adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner:  as, They are now here, studying very diligently.

OBSERVATIONS.

OBS. 1.—­Adverbs briefly express what would otherwise require several words:  as Now, for at this time;—­Here, for in this place;—­Very, for in a high degree;—­Diligently, for in an industrious manner.  Thus the meaning of almost any adverb, may be explained by some phrase beginning with a preposition and ending with a noun.

OBS. 2.—­There are several customary combinations of short words, which are used adverbially, and which some grammarians do not analyze in parsing; as, not at all, at length, in fine, in full, at least, at present, at once, this once, in vain, no doubt, on board.  But all words that convey distinct ideas, and rightly retain their individuality, ought to be taken separately in parsing.  With the liberty of supposing a few ellipses, an ingenious parser will seldom find occasion to speak of “adverbial phrases.”  In these instances, length, doubt, fine, and board, are unquestionably nouns; once, too, is used as a noun; full and all may be parsed either as nouns, or as adjectives whose nouns are understood; at least, is, at the least measure; at present, is, at the present time; and in vain, is, in a vain course, or manner.

OBS. 3.—­A phrase is a combination of two or more separable parts of speech, the parsing of which of course implies their separation.  And though the division of our language into words, and the division of its words into parts of speech, have never yet been made exactly to correspond, it is certainly desirable to bring them as near together as possible.  Hence such terms as everywhere, anywhere, nowadays, forever, everso, to-day, to-morrow, by-and-by, inside-out, upside-down, if they are to be parsed simply as adverbs, ought to be compounded, and not written as phrases.

OBS. 4—­Under nearly all the different classes of words, some particular instances may be quoted, in which other parts of speech seem to take the nature of adverbs, so as either to become such, or to be apparently used for them. (1.) ARTICLES:  “This may appear incredible, but it is not the less true.”—­Dr. Murray’s Hist., i, 337.  “The other party was a little coy.”—­D.  Webster. (2.) NOUNS:  “And scrutiny became stone[306] blind.”—­Cowper. “He will come home to-morrow.”—­Clark. “They were travelling post when he met them.”—­Murray’s Gram., p. 69.  “And with a vengeance sent from Media post to Egypt.”—­Milton, P. L., B. iv, l. 170.  “That I should care a groat whether he likes the work or not.”—­Kirkham.