Does adverb come before or after the verb?


Does an adverb come before or after the verb? I'm writing (or at least trying
to) the sentence "Never step inside of/on the tokonoma." Now, knowing how to
write that sentence specifically would be great, but I would really love to
know: in general, where does the adverb go in the "subject-object-verb"
sentence format??




In Japanese verbs always come last (except for poetry and in such cases that
is often a noun which concludes the sentence). Which means that adverb always
come before the verb.

Examples: (adverbs in bold)

  * **速く** 走る : to run fast
  * **早く** 起きる : to wake up early
  * **恐らく** 雨が降るでしょう : it will probably rain
  * 日本語を話せるように **一生懸命** 勉強している。: I work hard in order to become able to speak Japanese

The adverb of interest here is _never_. The "big" problem is that there is no
one-to-one correspondence between never and a Japanese word (whereas in many
romance languages there are direct equivalents: mai (in Italian), nunca or
jamás in Spanish, jamais in French, etc.)

But if you look at it, "Never step inside of/on the tokonoma." is an order, or
more precisely an interdiction. Thus, it can be rewritten this way: "(No
matter the situation,) do not step on the tokonoma."

To express a negative order in Japanese, you can add な to the 終止形 (the form
used to conclude a sentence) of a verb.

Examples:

  * 飲む : to drink → 飲むな Do not drink
  * 来る : to come → 来るな Do not come.

Nevertheless adding な is very direct.

An other possibility is to append てはいけない to the 未然形 of the verb. (Literally,
if you do so, it won't be any good)

  * 飲む → 飲んではいけない You'd better not drink
  * 来る → 来てはいけない You'd better not come

More softly, you can append こと after the negation of the verb.

  * 飲まないこと → You should not drink 
  * 来ないこと → You should not come

If you want to be polite.

  * 踏む (step on) → 床の間を、お踏みにならないように（ご注意ください）。 Please make sure not stepping on the tokonoma.

I am sure there are other ways to say it.




I would like to point out that although Japanese is indeed a SOV language, the
rules of word ordering are fairly free: as you have particles that provide
hints as to which role the word fulfils, you do not need a precise word order.

Setting this aside, these recommendations will help you:

  * The verb should always come last
  * The subject, if present is most often the first word
  * Adverbs can be placed anywhere, but their position influences their scope (see [Can placements of adverbs be altered freely?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/823/can-placements-of-adverbs-be-altered-freely) ).

Thus they will often be placed:

  * At the beginning of a sentence, when they qualify it entirely
  * Before a noun, to qualify it
  * Right before a verb, when they modify the action.

In your case, I would probably place it at the beginning:

> 絶対｛ぜったい｝に床の間を踏｛ふ｝まないでください

But I guess it would be acceptable before the verb:

> 床の間を決｛けっ｝して踏まないでください

