90+ Russian Adverbs To Grow Your Vocabulary And Boost Your Fluency

Learning Russian and want to boost your vocabulary? How about learning to describe actions? This is where adverbs come in. Known as an наречие in Russian, adverbs can give depth and description to everything you say.

So this article is going to cover everything you need to become an expert on Russian adverbs including what they are, types of adverbs and how to form them.

So by the time you get to the end of the article, you’ll be describing action with so much more ease!

What Are Adverbs In Russian?

The first thing you need to know in order to really understand Russian adverbs is how adverbs work overall. To describe an adverb в двух словах (in a nutshell), it’s a word that describes a place, a time, a quantity, or a way of doing something.

In other words, if it answers questions of где (where) something happens, когда (when) it happens сколько (how much) something happens and как (how) it happens, then it’s most likely an adverb.

One of the good things about learning these words is that unlike prepositions and Russian particles, adverbs in Russian don't decline, conjugate, or change for grammatical gender. That means you only have to learn one form of a word. 

The only other thing you really need to know is that adverbs usually go before the words they describe.

• Он редко играет на гитаре (He rarely plays the guitar)
• Река слишком длинная (The river is too long)

Let's take a look at some different adverb types in Russian grammar.

Adverbs Of Place / Наречия места – Where

Let’s start with an easy-to-understand group – adverbs of place. It should come as no surprise that these indicate where something happens. You probably already know a few of these.

• Там на горе (There on the mountain)
• Где-то под снегом (Somewhere under the snow)

You also have to remember that in Russian, location isn’t just marked with a few words like English with “here” and ‘”there.” In Russian, the direction of locations are also marked.

• 1. отсюда (from here)
• 2. оттуда (from there)
• 3. здес (here)
• 4. там (there)
• 5. тут (here)
• 6. сюда (to here)
• 7. туда (to there)

Of course, there are more adverbs of location than “here” and “there.” 

• 8. слева (on the left/from the left)
• 9. справа (on the right/from the right)
• 10. рядом (next to)
• 11. издали (from far away)
• 12. дома (at home)
• 13. домой (towards home)
• 14. внизу (downstairs)
• 15. вниз (towards downstairs)
• 16. внутри (inside)
• 17. внутрь (towards (the) inside)
• 18. наверху (upstairs)
• 19. наверх (towards upstairs)

• Рядом с машиной (Next to the car.)
• через пять минут иду домой (In five minutes I’m going home.)
• Работают внутри здания (They are working inside the building.)

Adverbs Of Time / Наречия места – When

You’re probably already familiar with a few different Russian adverbs of time.

• 20. сейчас (now)
• 21. тогда (then)
• 22. сегодня (today)
• 23. завтра (tomorrow)
• 24. вчера (yesterday)
• 25. скоро (soon)
• 26. часто (often)
• 27. редко (rarely, seldom)
• 28. всегда (always)
• 29. навсегда (forever)
• 30. долго (for a long time)
• 31. давно (for a long time)
• 32. рано (early)
• 33. поздно (late)
• 34. Уже (already)
• 35. еще (still, yet)

• Я часто читаю перед сном (I often read before bed/going to sleep.)
• завтра будет дождь (It’s going to rain tomorrow.)
• рано или поздно (Sooner or later.)

Two very important adverbs of time are еще (still, yet) and уже (already). You’ll see these all over the place and they very much should be on your list of adverbs in Russian to master.

Something worth mentioning about еще is how much it’s used in Russian in ways English-speakers might not expect. It does mean “yet” and “still.”

• Он еще плавает по субботам (He still swims on Saturdays.)
• Я еще не знаю место (I don’t know the location yet/I still don’t know the location.)

Additionally, the adverb еще can mean “more” or “another.” For this sense of the word, you should never use другой which means “other” or “another.”

• еще раз (One more time.)
• получил еще 2 письма (I got two more emails.)

A friend who was learning Russian told me a funny story about these words which I hope will help you remember the difference.

Once at a café in Moscow, after finishing his tea, he tried to ask for more. But he said другую чашку чаю which doesn't mean “another cup of tea” but instead means “a different cup of tea.” And so he was given a cup of green tea instead of the black tea he’d been enjoying earlier!

• Я бы хотел еще чашку чаю (I would like another cup of tea [lit. I would still like a cup of tea].)
• Я бы хотел другую чашку чаю (I would like another, different cup of tea.)

Adverbs Of Quantity – How Many

You’re probably already familiar with a few adverbs of quantity. These tell you how much, how many, or how few of something there is. And overall, they are pretty self explanatory.

• 36. Много (many)
• 37. немного (a little/a bit)
• 38. Более (more)
• 39. менее (less)
• 40. Больше (more)
• 41. меньше (less)
• 42. Только (only)
• 43. достаточно (enough)

• Я немного помню (I remember a little.)
• Я много помню (I remember a lot.)
• Менее четверти людей (Less than a quarter of people.)
• Больше денег – больше проблем (More money, more problems.)

Adverbs Of Manner – How, In What Manner

Adverbs of manner (Наречия образа действия) unsurprisingly describe how an action occurs. Typically in English, you can spot these because adverbs of manner often end in -ly (e.g. unsurprisingly, typically, usually).

Adverbs of manner can describe a range of other words like adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs.

• он бегает быстро (He runs quickly.)
  • быстро describes бегает
• он бегает очень быстро (He runs very quickly.)
  • очень describes быстро
• он невероятно быстрый (He’s unbelievably fast.)
  • невероятно describes быстрый

There are a whole lot of adverbs of manner. However, there are some fundamental ones that you’ll see all the time.

• 44. очень (very)
• 45. слишком (too)
• 46. вместе (together)
• 47. совсем (quite)

Almost all adverbs of manner are derived from other words, most especially from adjectives. Because there are so many adverbs of manner like this and it’s such a large subject, I'm going to go into more detail in the section below on forming adjectives.

Recognizing And Forming Russian Adverbs

The vast majority of adverbs in the Russian language are derived from other words, even if it’s not always obvious.

This means that spotting and understanding adverbs is relatively easy if you know what you’re looking for. It also means that you can often use a few simple rules and form adverbs with ease.

Negative And Indefinite Adverbs

One of the easiest ways to recognise and form adverbs is with the basic prefixes and suffixes that you can use for a whole range of words. These include the negative prefix ни- as well as the indefinite suffixes -то and -нибудь.

You can place the negative prefix ни- on any base adverbs/question adverbs and get a negative adverb as a result. Just remember that these terms must be paired with the negative particle не added onto the main verb.

• 48. ни + где > нигде (nowhere/not anywhere)
• 49. ни + когда > никогда (never)
• 50. ни + как > никак (no way)

• Мы никогда не были во Франции (We’ve never been to/in France.)
• вы нигде не увидите такое искусство(You don’t see such art anywhere.)

You can attach the suffix -то to the end of some of the base adverbs to make them indefinite.

• 51. где + то > где-то (somewhere)
• 52. куда + то > куда-то (towards somewhere)
• 53. когда + то > когда-то (sometime)
• 54. как + то > как-то (somehow)

• он работает где-то в центре (He works somewhere in the (city) centre.)
• можно как-то найти ответ (It’s somehow possible to find an answer.)

You can do the same thing with the suffix -нибудь to get an indefinite adverb with a slightly different meaning. 

• 55. где + нибудь > где-нибудь (anywhere)
• 56. куда + нибудь > куда-нибудь (towards anywhere)
• 57. когда + нибудь > когда-нибудь (anytime/some (unspecific) time)
• 58. как + нибудь > как-нибудь (any how/by whatever means)

• Когда-нибудь напишу историю (Someday I’ll write out the story.)
• Если где-нибудь что-то видишь… (If you see something anywhere…)

Adverbs Made From Adjectives

In Russian, there's a huge group of adverbs that are formed from adjectives. If you want to convert adjectives to adverbs, good news – it's relatively simple because it’s just a change of endings. You can do this with a huge number of adjectives.

Most often an adjective that ends in ий will form an adverb with the ending -е or -о

• 59. хороший > хорошо (good > well)
• 60. глубокий > глубоко (deep > deeply)
• 61. тихий > тихо (quiet > quietly)
• 62. высокий > высоко (tall/high > high up)
• 63. крайний > крайне (extreme > extremely)

• Она очень хорошо танцует (She dances very well.)
• Голубко понимать (To understand deeply.)

A large number of adjectives that end in -ский or -цкий become adverbs by removing the letter й.

• 64. логический > логически (logical > logically)
• 65. автоматический > автоматически (automatic > automatically)

• Дверь автоматически открывает (The door opens automatically.)
• Экономически сильная страна (An economically strong country.)

Adverbs Coming From The Preposition по

Once again, we have to talk about the preposition по. This two-letter word is infamous for giving Russian learners difficulty due to its wide range of meanings.

The gist of it is that the preposition по means “in the manner of”, “in the way of” or “in the style of.” Some of the very first phrases you learn in Russian use this exact construction.

• 66. говорить по-английски (to speak English [lit. in English style])
• 67. говорить по-русски (to speak Russian [lit. Russian-ly])

The signal that по-русски and по-английски are adverbs is twofold.

First, they have the preposition по- as a prefix. Secondly, they end in the adverbial ending и and not the adjective ending ий as discussed earlier. Although they may look similar, the difference is pretty important.

So why do some adverbs that end in и have по and some don’t? Well, there are two general rules worth knowing.

Rule 1- Adverbs ending in -ически cannot combine with по-

• “logically” логически CORRECT по-логически* INCORRECT
• “historically” исторически CORRECT по-исторически* INCORRECT

Rule 2 – Adverbs with по usually refer to something alive. This includes animals, people, and nationalities.

• 68. по-медвежьи (as a bear/like a bear)
• 69. по-турецки (in the Turkish style)
• 70. По-собачьи (as dog would/dog-style)

• Плавание по-собачьи (Doggy paddle [lit. swimming dog-style])
• Кафе по-турецки (Turkish-style coffee)

When adverbs are made by combining по- with certain pronouns, they refer to people’s opinions. These are made with forms similar to the dative case.

• 71. по-моему (in my opinion)
• 72. по-нашему (in our opinion)
• 73. по-вашему (in your opinion)

• Это, по–моему, очень интересный вопрос (This, in my opinion, is a very interesting question.)

There are also several adverbs that are formed this way that simply have their own meanings.

• 74. по-новому (in a/the new way)
• 75. по-другому (in the other way/in another way)
• 76. по-разному (in a different way)
• 77. по-восточному (in an Eastern style/way)

• Это называется по-другому, по-западому (In the West/Western style, this is called something else.) 
• Теперь надо думать по-новому (Now we have to think in a new way.)

Adverbs Coming From Nouns

There is a sizeable set of adverbs of time in Russian that are formed from nouns.

You probably already know the words вечер (evening) and зима (winter). It might not be much of a surprise that these words are the basis of adverbs of time.

The structure is simple because these adverbs are (usually) identical to the nouns in the instrumental case.

• зима (winter)
  • 78. зимой зимой (in winter [adverb])
• вечер (evening)
  • 79. вечером вечером (in the evening [adverb])

By using nouns in the singular, instrumental case, it’s a straightforward process to make and identify adverbs about times of day, and seasons. 

• 80. Утром (in the morning)
• 81. ночью (at night)
• 82. Летом (in the summer)
• 83. осенью (in fall/autumn)

Of course, this use of the instrumental case also creates loads of other commonly used adverbs.

• 84. даром (for free/gratis [lit. as a gift])
• 85. шепотом (in whispers [lit. by a whisper])

• ночью они говорят шепотом (At night, they speak in whispers.)

Adverbs Coming From Pronouns

If you know the pronouns тот and этот, then you should be able to recognize that a lot of Russian adverbs come from combining them with different prepositions.

• 86. затем за + тем (afterwards, then [lit. after that])
• 87. потом по + том (then [lit. by that, following that])
• 88. поэтому по + этому (therefore [lit. following this])

While some of these words might be easy to spot, you might know that there are even more that you already know. The archaic word сей and its declension is the old way of saying “this” and you can see it in plenty of phrases and adverbs once you know where to look.

• 89. сейчас сей + час (now [lit. (at) this time, this hour])
• 90. сегодня сего + дня (today [lit. of this day])
• 91. до сих пор (until now [lit. until these times])

Becoming An Adverb Expert

And there you have it. A quick but thorough run-down on adverbs in Russian. There are a lot of them. But they're easy to understand and to form. So by this point, you should have a better understanding of:

• The different kinds of adverbs
• Forming adverbs from nouns
• Forming adverbs from adjectives
• Forming adverbs from pronouns

Of course, this has only been an overview of adverbs in Russian. The only way to really solidify your knowledge of adverbs in action is with practice, practice, and more practice. But why not make learning Russian fun with a story or two?

By following the rules of StoryLearning and reading in Russian, you'll see adverbs over and over again in context. You won't need to memorise or study them. You'll pick them up naturally as you read, and before you know it, you'll be using them with confidence.

So with that in mind, I invite you to go forth and talk about when, how, where something happens. Describe an adjective or a verb or two. And as always удача из удач (best of luck)!

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.