Editing Luganda (section)

=== Adverbs ===
True [[adverb]]s in the [[grammar|grammatical]] sense are far rarer in Luganda than in, say, [[English language|English]], being mostly translated by other parts of speech—for example [[adjective]]s or [[grammatical particle|particles]].
When the adverb is qualifying a [[verb]], it is usually translated by an adjective, which then agrees with the [[subject (grammar)|subject]] of the verb. For example:
* {{lang|lg|Ankonjera bubi}} 'She slanders me badly'
* {{lang|lg|Bankonjera bubi}} 'They slander me badly'
Here, 'badly' is translated with the adjective {{lang|lg|-bi}} 'bad, ugly', which is [[declension|declined]] to agree with the subject.

Other concepts can be translated by invariant [[grammatical particle|particles]]. for example the intensifying [[grammatical particle|particle]] {{lang|lg|nnyo}} is attached to an adjective or verb to mean 'very', 'a lot'. For example: {{lang|lg|Lukwago anywa nnyo}} 'Lukwago drinks a lot'.

There are also two groups of true adverb in Luganda, both of which agree with the verbal subject or qualified noun (not just in [[grammatical gender|gender]] and [[grammatical number|number]] but also in [[grammatical person|person]]), but which are [[inflexion|inflected]] differently. The first group is [[Grammatical conjugation|conjugated]] in the same way as [[verb]]s and contains only a few words: {{lang|lg|tya}} 'how', {{lang|lg|ti}} 'like this', {{lang|lg|tyo}} 'like that':
* {{lang|lg|Njogera bwe nti}} 'I speak like this'
* {{lang|lg|Abasiraamu basaba bwebati}} 'Muslims pray like this'
* {{lang|lg|Enkima erya bweti}} 'The monkey eats like this'
* {{lang|lg|Enkima zirya bweziti}} 'Monkeys eat like this'
The adverb {{lang|lg|ti}} 'like this' (the last word in each of the above sentences) is conjugated as a verb to agree with the subject of the sentence in gender, number and person.

The second group takes a different set of prefixes, based on the pronouns. Adverbs in this group include {{lang|lg|-nna}} 'all' (or, with the singular, 'any'), {{lang|lg|-kka}} 'only', {{lang|lg|-mbi}}, {{lang|lg|-mbiriri}} 'both' and {{lang|lg|-nsatule}} 'all three':
* {{lang|lg|Nkola nzekka}} 'I work alone'
* {{lang|lg|Nzekka nze nkola}} 'Only I work'
* {{lang|lg|Ggwe wekka ggwe okola}} 'Only you work'
* {{lang|lg|Nze nzekka nze ndigula emmotoka}} 'Only I will buy the car'
* {{lang|lg|Ndigula mmotoka yokka}} 'I will only buy the car'
Note how, in the last two examples, the adverb {{lang|lg|-kka}} agrees with whichever [[antecedent (grammar)|antecedent]] it is qualifying — either the implicit {{lang|lg|nze}} 'I' or the explicit {{lang|lg|emmotoka}} 'the car'.

Note also, in the first two examples, how the placement of {{lang|lg|nzekka}} before or after the verb makes the difference between 'only' (when the adverb qualifies and agrees with the subject—the implicit {{lang|lg|nze}} 'I') and 'alone' (when it qualifies the verb {{lang|lg|nkola}} 'I work' but agrees with the subject).