Adjectives and adverbs - 1
What are adjectives?
Adjectives are words that tell us something about a noun, pronoun, impression or situation.
What do adjectives modify?
Adjectives can modify nouns or pronouns/names.
person |
thing |
Mandy is a careful girl |
This is a nice car |
Mandy is careful |
The car is nice |
She is careful |
It is nice |
Where do adjectives go?
An adjective can be put before the noun. Then it is an attribute.
person |
thing |
Mandy is a careful girl |
This is a nice car |
An adjective can be put after the verb to be (is).
Then it is part of the predicate.
person |
thing |
The girl is careful |
This car is nice |
Adjectives can also put after the following verbs:
to + appear, become, feel, get, go, keep, turn, look, like, smell, sound, taste and other verbs of experience.
Examples:
- The steak smells fantastic
- She turned red
- He got excited
- It tastes awful
Adjectives and adverbs - 2
What are adverbs?
Adverbs tell us in what way someone does something.
Adverbs can modify verbs (here: drive), adjectives or other adverbs.
adjective |
adverb |
Mandy is a careful girl |
Mandy drives carefully |
She is very careful |
She drives carefully |
Explanation:
Mandy is a careful driver.
This sentence is about Mandy, the driver, so use the adjective.
Mandy drives carefully.
This sentence is about her way of driving, so use the adverb
Form of the adverb: adjective + -ly
adjective |
adverb |
dangerous |
dangerously |
careful |
carefully |
nice |
nicely |
horrible |
horribly |
easy |
easily |
electronic |
electronically |
Adverbs formed from adjectives ending -y, pronounced like Dutch 'ie'
If the adjective ends in -y, change the final -y to -i. Then add -ly:
happy - happily
but:
shy – shyly (the 'y' in 'shy' does not sound like Dutch 'ie'.)
Adjectives and adverbs - 3
Adverbs formed from adjectives ending in -le
If the adjective ends in -le, drop the -e, and replace it with -y:
terrible – terribly
Adverbs formed from adjectives ending in -e
If the adjective ends in -e, then add -ly:
safe - safely
Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs:
- adjectives, ending in -ly: friendly, silly, lonely, ugly
- nouns, ending in -ly: ally, bully, Italy, melancholy
- verbs, ending in -ly: apply, rely, supply
There is no separate adverb for an adjective already ending in -ly.
Irregular forms
There are some irregular forms, where the adverb has a stem that differs from the adjective. Other irregular forms show no difference between the adjective and the adverb.
adjective |
adverb |
good |
well |
fast |
fast |
hard |
hard |