Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are parts of speech in English that have different functions within a sentence. It is important to understand these parts of speech and to know how to use them correctly.
Nouns
Nouns are things, places, people, and animals.
Nouns may be countable (apples, people, buildings) or uncountable (information, water, advice)
The sailboat has been damaged for some time now.
Verbs
Verbs are words we use to describe actions or states.
Verbs may be stative (like, love, cost, etc.), dynamic (run, drive, eat, etc.) or mixed (think, have, smell, etc.).
The cat ate the dog’s food before he had a chance to have some.
Adjectives
Adjectives are words that modify nouns. They are descriptive words that give us more information.
Adjectives are either placed before the noun they describe or after a linking verb (be, look, feel etc.)
Her light brown hair is very shiny.
Adverbs
Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They give us more information about how an action is done.
Adverbs are split into different categories: manner, place, time, frequency, and degree.
The opera singer sang beautifully.
Usain Bolt is very fast.
She often goes to the movies by herself.
Irregular Adverbs
Most adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective. However, some adverbs are irregular, such as:
- fast
- well
- hard
- late
- early
- daily
- straight
- wrong
Adverbs of Frequency
Some adverbs are used to explain how often something happens; these are called adverbs of frequency.
| 0-10% | 25% | 50% | 75% | 100% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
hardly ever scarcely ever never |
rarely seldom infrequently |
sometimes periodically occasionally now and then |
generally normally regularly often frequently |
always constantly usually |
Exercise
Open the exercise to begin the activity. Follow the instructions in the document.