Current Grammar Exercises – Sentence Adverbs/Stance Adverbs/Modal Words

Lives were arguably simpler, vocabularies indisputably smaller. The principles of clear style—have changed surprisingly little

Sentence adverbs/Modal words/Stance adverbs and parenthetic expressions ("as it were", "so to speak", "if you will") make up a group of function words that expresses a writer's or speaker's attitude to the content of the sentence in which it occurs (such as frankly, obviously), or places the sentence to be viewed in a particular context (such as technically, politically).

If we drop the modal word in the sentence Foolishly, I didn’t check my e-mail yesterday, the objective information will remain but the subjective information will disappear (Volkova).

After Prof. Volkova, modal words/stance adverbials/sentence adverbs are classified into three groups:

1. Evaluative modal words (to express speaker’s evaluation and attitudes towards the content of a clause): fortunately, luckily, happily, foolishly, regrettably, if you will

2. Suppositional modal words (to focus on the question how true is the information in the clause): admittedly, apparently, possibly, evidently, surely, certainly, probably, presumably, obviously, seemingly, etc.

3. Commentary modal words (to convey a speaker’s comment on the style or form of the communication): significantly, frankly, naturally, curiously, surprisingly, importantly, normally, hopefully, technically speaking, to be precise, quite frankly, so to speak, as it were, etc.

45. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian and mark whether the highlighted words (or expressions) are sentence adverbs (SE) or a regular adverbial modifier (AM).

1. Fortunately ____, before I left I was given the opportunity to participate.

2. He addressed the crowd who luckily ____ didn’t realize what they would have to go through.

3. But however luckily ____ matching, they were not destined to live together.

4. He was beaming happily ____.

5. The inflation is fortunately ____ quite low.

6. Foolishly ____, I thought my decision would be a simple one.

7. She had spoken foolishly ____ and revealed herself.

8. Soon after, a RSVP arrived claiming he was “regrettably ____ busy shooting a film in London” at the particular weekend.

9. The government can’t, if you will ____, keep its hands out of our wallet.

10. Supported agriculture groups are admittedly ____ a drop in the bucket compared with the whole industry.

11. This led to a job interview and ultimately a new style, admittedly ____ far removed from his rural childhood in North Dakota.

12. Six people were killed, including the man who apparently ____ had carried the bomb onto the bus.

13. Now at 42, the boxer can’t possibly ____ be as good as he was in his prime.

14. Evidently Elizabeth’s relatives evidently ____ turned their backs on her problems.

15. Owning luxury goods in exotic styles or from exotic places is presumably ___ a good way to display status.

16. This was no ordinary trial, as we are obviously ____ aware.

17. He seemingly ____ hadn’t learnt anything from his earlier mistakes.

18. The conductor’s eyes darted about, seemingly ____ all-seeing, and ears all-hearing.

19. Significantly ____, this meant the other stakeholders were now ready to go the extra mile.

20. It’s unlikely to significantly ____ alter the administration’s attitude towards this issue.

21. I don’t frankly ____ find anything suspicious about her requesting a meeting.

22. Some of the efforts are frankly ____ bizarre.

23. I am still worried, but curiously ____ enough, not as much as I started to write this.

24. Ron delivered this huge news in a curiously ____ abstract tone of voice, without meeting his friends’ eyes.

25. Most importantly ____ for the purpose of this paper, 17% of the students are not being surveyed.

26. The study looked into whether the differences had changed importantly ____ over two decades.

27. We are fighting now for what will hopefully ____ be a more peaceful world.

28. She forced a smile looking hopefully ____ into his summer blue eyes.

46. Translate the sentence into English.

1. На моє щастя, всі решта виявилися теж поруч і були готові допомогти.

2. Він на щастя взяв урок зі своїх попередніх аварій і зараз зумів уникнути ще одної.

3. Нам поталанило, що мряка розвіялася.

4. Абсолютно недоречно він завагався в найвідповідальнішу мить.

5. Як не сумно, але нам не вдалося отримати хоч які пояснення щодо інциденту.

6. Я припускаю багато людей подумало, що аварія Шатла була справою терористів.

7. Патріція, вже очевидно було пішла до своєї машини.

8. Ти міг би якось знайти для цього хвилину?

9. Як би то не було, ми доведемо цю річ до кінця – те, в чому ти явно зацікавлений.

10. Оскільки рівень зарубіжних інвестицій ймовірно надто оптимістичний, результати будуть фактично менші.

11. Немає явно ніякої можливості знати, які будуть ціни на житло, коли я стану потенційним покупцем.

12. Досить цікаво, що ніхто про це раніше не задумувався.