Adjectives & Adverbs

Level A2 · Adjectives & Adverbs

Adjectives describe a noun (a tall building, she is happy); adverbs describe a verb, an adjective, or another adverb (she sings beautifully; a really tall building; she sings very beautifully). English cares about this distinction because the two have different jobs and different positions in the sentence — mixing them up is one of the most common errors even at higher levels.

Adjectives and adverbs each have a fixed position:

• Adverbs of manner are usually formed with adjective + -ly: quick → quickly, careful → carefully (spelling changes: happy → happily, terrible → terribly).
• Adverbs of manner normally go after the verb, or after the verb + object, never splitting them: She sings beautifully; She plays the piano beautifully (not She sings beautifully the song).

The most common mistake is using an adjective where an adverb belongs, especially with good/well: good is always the adjective (a good singer), well is the adverb (she sings well) — she sings good is wrong. A second frequent error is treating an adjective that happens to end in -ly, like friendly, lovely, silly, or lonely, as if it were an adverb — she smiled friendly is wrong, because friendly is only ever an adjective. Say she gave a friendly smile or she smiled in a friendly way instead.

Look at what's being described: a noun needs an adjective, a verb/adjective/other adverb needs an adverb. A word ending in -ly isn't automatically an adverb — check whether it's actually one of the -ly adjectives (friendly, lovely, silly, lonely, elderly) describing a noun, or a genuine adverb (quickly, carefully) modifying an action.

Practice

Adjective or Adverb? · Adverbs of Manner: Formation & Position