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For example:

Ever wish you could share information broadly

Could it be rewritten to:

Ever wish you could broadly share information

Are there any rules for the position of the adverbs.

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  • I have found wordpower.ws/grammar/gramch24.html page that explain very well where to put the adverbs.
    – PhoneixS
    Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 9:57
  • Sorry, no rule, so a comment instead. To me, the two phrases have different meanings. For the first, we are alreadt sharing information, but pondering the benefits or do so in a broad manner. In the second, we are considering starting to share information - but only in a qualified sense.
    – F2Andy
    Commented Jun 15, 2023 at 11:45

3 Answers 3

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The positioning of the adverb should be based on the type of impact our sentence/question needs to make.

The first sentence:

Ever wish you could share information broadly?

This would be more effective when used to catch the readers' attention, probably an advertisement/headline where the idea is to make all readers imagine "broadly".

The second one:

Ever wish you could broadly share information?

This probably has more stress on the "information" rather than on "broadly". It would sound more apt in a paragraph, rather than in a headline.

Again, it depends on how the message needs to be sent across. Both options are correct.

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When an adverb modifies a verb, you can usually put it either before, between, or after:

Adverb = 'often', verb = 'go'

Before:

Often, I go for long walks.

Between:

I often go for long walks.

End:

I go for long walks often.

These aren't all equally common; you would probably find the between position used the most.

In your example, you are asking a question, so the 'before' position can't really be used.

Broadly, ever wish you could share information?

Just doesn't work.

But the between and end position are equally valid. I would say that, again, the between position sounds best.

Ever wish you could broadly share information?

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    If someone said "Broadly, ever wish you could share information?" I would interpret 'broadly' as being applied to my explanation. In other words, they're asking for a broad overview of whether I wish I could share information, not asking about information that is broadly shared.
    – DCShannon
    Commented Nov 3, 2014 at 18:20
  • You define your "before" position as the adverb before the clause it modifies. In the OP's sentence, "broadly" modifies "share information", so "Ever wish you could broadly share information?" does use what you call the "before" position. // True, "Broadly" at the start of the whole sentence doesn't work, but that isn't because the sentence is a question, it's because the words "ever wish" in the main clause separate "Broadly" from the subsidiary clause it belongs in.
    – Rosie F
    Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 7:14
  • None of your first 3 examples has an auxiliary verb, so they fail to exemplify the full set of candidate positions for "broadly" in the OP's sentence.
    – Rosie F
    Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 7:14
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I always think the adverb should be placed as closely as possible to the word it modifies. See how I did it in this sentence, with "as closely as possible"?

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