Grammar: Adjectives and adverbs

Read the Rules:

Look at these examples:

·       Our holiday was too short — the time passed very quickly.

·       Two people were seriously injured in the accident.

Quickly and seriously are adverbs. Many adverbs are formed from an adjective + -ly: quick – quickly; serious – seriously; careful – carefully; quiet – quietly; heavy – heavily; bad – badly.

Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. Some adjectives end in -ly too, for example: friendly, lively, elderly, lonely, silly, lovely.

·       If an adjective end in -e, we keep e before -ly in the adverb: polite – politely; extreme – extremely; absolute – absolutely.

·       If an adjective ends in -Ie (simple, terrible etc.), the adverb ending is -ply, -bly etc.: simple – simply; terrible – terribly; reasonable – reasonably.

Adjectives (quick/careful etc.) tell us about a noun (somebody or something). We use adjectives before nouns:

·       Sam is a careful driver. (not a carefully driver)

·       We didn’t go out because of the heavy rain.

Adverbs (quickly/carefully etc.) tell us about a verb (how somebody does something or how something happens):

·       Sam drove carefully along the narrow road. (not drove careful)

·       We didn't go out because it was raining heavily. (not raining heavy)

Compare:

·       She speaks perfect English. (adjective + noun)

·       She speaks English perfectly. (verb + noun + adverb)

We also use adjectives after some verbs, especially be, and also look/feel/sound etc. Compare:

·       Please be quiet.

·       I was disappointed that my exam results were so bad.

·       Why do you always look so serious?

·       I feel happy.

·       Please speak quietly.

·       I was unhappy that I did so badly in the exam. (not did so bad)

·       Why do you never take me seriously?

·       The children were playing happily.