Normal adverbs
Sentence adverbs begin the sentence and indicate the speaker’s attitude toward the
following contents, and/or qualify or frame how listeners are to interpret the following
contents. They can be used for explanations and to manage topic shifts.
For example:
Fortunately, a way has been found to resolve this long-standing problem.
Naturally, one would want to assess the risks first.
Especially, we would like to contain our company’s bleeding of cash.
actually
apparently
basically
by the way
briefly
certainly
clearly
conceivably
confidentially
curiously
especially
evidently
fortunately
hopefully
hypothetically
ideally
incidentally
indeed
interestingly
ironically
naturally
oddly
predictably
presumably
regrettably
seriously
strangely
surprisingly
thankfully
theoretically
therefore
truthfully
ultimately
unfortunately
wisely
Topical adverbs
Topical adverbs (this is my own name for them – this is not a standard term) are
somewhat similar to sentence adverbs, except that they function to identify or qualify the
topic of the coming clause. This adverb is similar to a normal adverb within a sentence,
but moved to the beginning to make the topic more explicit, to emphasize the speaker’s
point, to give it more prominence, to shift the topic to a new but somewhat related topic,
or to avoid too many other adverbs inside the sentence.
Many words could be used like this, such as these, and many others, such as adverbs
related to specific topics or fields of study:
scientifically
mathematically
artistically
financially
intellectually
philosophically
computationally
psychologically
economically
politically
intellectually
biologically
environmentally
presently
evolutionary
emotionally
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