The Challenges of Adverbs in Spanish Translation I

An adverb is a word or a phrase or a clause that serves the function of:

• defining or describing or qualifying a verb, or
• modifying an adjective or
• modifying a participle.

There are two kinds of adverbs in Spanish. The first kind are single words that serve adverbial functions, for example, ‘anteayer´, ‘aquí´, ‘tampoco´, etc. The second kind is formed by adding the suffix ‘-mente´ to adjectives, for example, ‘claramente´, ‘atrozmente´, fácilmente´, etc.

While forming adverbs by adding the suffix ‘-mente´ it is important to remember that if two or more adverbs using ‘-mente´ are used in juxtaposition, then only the last adverb carries the suffix. For example, the Spanish translation of the English expression ‘John spoke calmly and deliberately´ should be ‘Juan habló tranquila y pausadamente´, and not ‘Juan habló tranquilamente y pausadamente´.

In Spanish, a prepositional phrase like ‘con + an abstract noun´ is frequently used instead of the ‘-mente´ form of the adverb. Hence, the Spanish translation for the English ‘ironically´ would be ‘con ironía and not ‘irónicamente´.

The English adverb ‘recently´ deserves special mention because its Spanish equivalent ‘recientemente´ would have to be shortened to ‘recién´ if it was being used before a past participle. The Spanish translation of the English adverb ‘only´ can take any of the following forms, namely, ‘sólo´, ‘solamente´ or ‘no más que´.