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Adverbs

Properties of Adverbs
Unlike English, changing adjectives to adverbs is a very simple and straightforward process. In addition, since the system of particles make sentence ordering flexible, adverbs can be placed anywhere in the clause that it applies to long as it comes before the verb that it refers to. As usual, we have two separate rules: one for i-adjectives, and one for na-adjectives.

How to change an adjective to an adverb
i-adjectives: Substitute the 「い」 with 「く」.
例） 早い → 早く
na-adjectives: Attach the target particle 「に」.
例） きれい → きれいに

（１）　ボブは朝ご飯を早く食べた。- Bob quickly ate breakfast.
The adverb 「早く」 is a little different from the English word 'fast' in that it can mean quickly in terms of speed or time. In other words, Bob may have eaten his breakfast early or he may have eaten it quickly depending on the context. In other types of sentences such as 「早く走った」, it is quite obvious that it probably means quickly and not early. (Of course this also depends on the context.)

（２）　アリスは自分の部屋をきれいにした。- Alice did her own room toward clean. The literal translation kind of gives you a sense of why the target particle is used. There is some argument against calling this an adverb at all but it is convenient for us to do so because of the grouping of i-adjectives and na-adjectives. Thinking of it as an adverb, we can interpret the sentence to mean: "Alice did her room cleanly." or less literally: "Alice cleaned her room." （「きれい」 literally means "pretty" but if it helps, you can think of it as, "Alice prettied up her own room."）

Note: Not all adverbs are derived from adjectives. Some words like 「全然」 and 「たくさん」 are adverbs in themselves without any conjugation. These words can be used without particles just like regular adverbs.

（１）　映画をたくさん見た。- Saw a lot of movies.
（２）　最近、全然食べない。- Lately, don't eat at all.

Let's look at more examples of adverb usage.
（１）　ボブの声は、結構大きい。 - Bob's voice is fairly large.
（２）　この町は、最近大きく変わった。- This town had changed greatly lately.
（３）　図書館の中では、静かにする。- Within the library, [we] do things quietly.