Some adverbs can modify entire sentences—unsurprisingly, these are called sentence adverbs. Common ones include generally, fortunately, interestingly, and accordingly. Sentence adverbs don’t describe one particular thing in the sentence—instead, they describe a general feeling about all of the information in the sentence.
Fortunately, we got there in time.
Interestingly, no one at the auction seemed interested in bidding on the antique spoon collection.
At one time, the use of the word hopefully as a sentence adverb (e.g., “Hopefully, I’ll get this job”) was condemned. People continued to use it, though, and many style guides and dictionaries now accept it. That said, there are still plenty of readers out there who hate it, so it’s a good idea to avoid using it in formal writing.
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