English grammar · Beginner
English Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives describe nouns (a quiet street); adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or whole sentences (she spoke quietly, a very quiet street, luckily). Both can be compared, both have rules about where they go in a sentence, and both come in sets that learners mix up.
What it is
An adjective adds information to a noun and usually sits either directly in front of it (a red car) or after a linking verb (the car is red). An adverb adds information to almost anything else, and its position is far more flexible: quickly she left, she quickly left, she left quickly. Many adverbs are made from adjectives with -ly, but the most common ones (well, fast, hard, late) are not.
It was a hard exam (adjective). She worked hard (adverb). She hardly worked (a different adverb, meaning almost not at all).
How to spot it
Ask what the word is describing. If it describes a thing, it is an adjective. If it describes an action, a quality, or the whole sentence, it is an adverb, even when it has no -ly.
- a careful driver (adjective describing the noun driver)
- She drives carefully. (adverb of manner describing the verb)
- an extremely careful driver (adverb (intensifier) describing the adjective)
- Honestly, I forgot. (sentence adverb commenting on the whole statement)
After linking verbs (be, seem, feel, look, taste) English uses an adjective, not an adverb: the soup tastes good, I feel bad. Feel badly is one of the classic overcorrections.
Adjectives & Adverbs Quick Reference
Adjective or adverb: the common pairs
| Adjective | Adverb | Note |
|---|---|---|
| quick | quickly | regular: add -ly |
| happy | happily | -y becomes -ily |
| good | well | irregular; well is also an adjective meaning healthy |
| fast | fast | same form; fastly does not exist |
| hard | hard | same form; hardly means almost not |
| late | late | same form; lately means recently |
| friendly | in a friendly way | -ly adjective with no adverb form |
All 3 adjectives & adverbs lessons
The adjective pages cover the things learners search for most: the order of several adjectives before a noun, comparatives and superlatives and how to modify them, -ed against -ing adjectives (bored and boring), extreme and gradable adjectives, and the intensifiers and mitigators that scale them up and down. The adverb pages take the types one by one, manner, time, place, direction, frequency, and probability, and then deal with the harder question of where an adverb goes in the sentence.
- Adverbs of Manner: An adverb of manner tells you how an action is done: slowly, carefully, well, fast. Most are made by adding -ly to an adjective (quiet, quietly), a few keep the same form as the adjective (hard, fast, late), and well is the adverb of good. They normally follow the verb or its object, never come between the verb and its object, and after linking verbs like feel and look English uses an adjective instead.
- Adverbs of Time: Adverbs of time tell you when something happens (yesterday, now, soon, later), how long it lasts (for two hours, all day, since Monday), or how often it happens (often, rarely, every week). They can be single words or phrases, and most of them go at the end of the sentence, or at the beginning for emphasis.
- Comparatives and Superlatives: Comparatives and superlatives are the forms of an adjective that compare. The comparative (taller, more expensive) sets one thing against another and is followed by than; the superlative (the tallest, the most expensive) picks out the extreme in a group of three or more and is preceded by the. Short adjectives take the endings -er and -est, longer ones take more and most, and a handful of very common adjectives (good, bad, far) have irregular forms.
Adjectives & Adverbs FAQs
- What is the difference between an adjective and an adverb?
- An adjective describes a noun or pronoun: a loud noise, she is tall. An adverb describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole clause: he shouted loudly, a very loud noise, quite loudly, frankly, I doubt it. The quick test is the question being answered: what kind of thing (adjective) or how, when, where, how often (adverb).
- What is the correct order of adjectives in English?
- Opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose: a lovely little old round brown French wooden coffee table. Nobody uses eight at once, but the order holds for any two or three: a big red car, not a red big car. Opinion always comes first because it is the speaker's judgement rather than a fact about the thing.
- When do I use -ed and when -ing adjectives?
- The -ed adjective describes how someone feels; the -ing adjective describes what causes the feeling. I am bored because the lecture is boring. The film was terrifying, so the children were terrified. Mixing them up (I am boring) changes the meaning rather than making a small error, so it is worth getting right early.
- Where does an adverb go in a sentence?
- It depends on the type. Adverbs of frequency (always, often, never) go before the main verb but after be: she always arrives early, she is always early. Adverbs of manner usually go after the verb or its object: she sang the song beautifully. Adverbs of time and place tend to go at the end: we met there yesterday. Never put an adverb between a verb and its object: she sang beautifully the song is a mistake.
- Can I say very delicious or very freezing?
- No. Delicious and freezing are extreme (non-gradable) adjectives that already contain the idea of very. They take absolutely, completely, or really instead: absolutely delicious, completely freezing. Very goes with gradable adjectives: very tasty, very cold. Quite also changes meaning between the two groups: quite good means fairly good, quite perfect means completely perfect.