This tablet was very expensive. Please hold it carefully.
Adjectives
Adjectives describe nouns:
You have a beautiful car.
Christian looks tired.
It was cold yesterday.
Some adjectives look like verbs. Many English adjectives end in ing or ed. You will study the difference between adjectives like confusing and confused in the 120 level:
- confusing
- amazing
- exciting
- tiring
- boring
- confused
- amazed
- excited
- tired
- bored
Adjectives can go before the nouns they describe:
She is a beautiful woman.
That's a cute cat.
I have a new phone.
Also, we can use adjectives after the following verbs:
be become / get look sound taste smell feel |
+ | adjective |
It is sunny today.
I am getting tired.
She looks sad.
This tastes delicious!
Adverbs
Adjectives describe how somebody or something looks, tastes, sounds, etc.. They describe nouns.
We use adverbs mainly to describe how somebody does something or how something happens. This means we use adverbs mainly to describe verbs:
- She has a beautiful voice.
(beautiful describes "voice")
- She sings beautifully.
(beautifully describes "sings")
- She is a very good driver.
(good describes "driver")
- She drives very well.
(well describes "drives")
To make an adverb, we usually add ly to the adjective:
- beautifully
- badly
- quietly
- carefully
- sadly
He sings badly.
Why are you talking so quietly?
Drive carefully!
Adjectives that end in y usually change to ily in the adverb form:
- angry ➝ angrily
- happy ➝ happily
- heavy ➝ heavily
- noisy ➝ noisily
There are also a few irregular adverbs in English. For fast, late, and hard, the adjective and adverb forms are the same. The adverb form of good is well:
Adjective | Adverb |
---|---|
fast late hard good |
fast late hard well |
Adverbs that describe how something is done or how something happens usually come after the verb:
It's raining heavily.
She speaks English well.
I studied hard last night.
But remember, we use adjectives, not adverbs, when we describe nouns with be, become, get, seem, look, sound, taste, smell, and feel:
His voice is loud.
He speaks loudly.
This song sounds bad.
She sings badly.
This tastes good.
You cook well.
Exercise
Please click the Exercise link to continue.