> デートを **直前に** キャンセルして、彼女をかんかんに怒らせてしまいました。

In this example is 直前に an adverb?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-26T15:06:59.683
72120
2019-09-26T16:30:52.980
2019-09-26T16:30:52.980
9831
34489
question
grammar
直前に adverb or not
直前に is [**adverbial**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverbial_phrase) because
it modifies some verb, but it's not a (single-word) **adverb**. 直前に is a
**phrase** made of two words (a noun 直前 and a particle に), so it doesn't make
much sense to ask if it's an adverb or not in the first place. (By the way,
[近所に](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/72109/5010) also is an adverbial
phrase, but not an adverb.)

To take an example in English, "at night" as in "I sleep at night" is an
adverbial phrase, but neither "at" nor "night" is an adverb by itself.

Unequivocal (single-word) adverbs in Japanese are words like ゆっくり, とても and
ようやく.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-09-26T15:18:30.240
72121
2019-09-26T15:18:30.240
5010
72120
answer