A- Look at these examples: Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs

A- Look at these examples:
• Our holiday was too short - the time went very quickly.
• The driver of the car was seriously injured in the accident.

Quickly and seriously are adverbs. Many adverbs are made from an adjective + -ly:

Adjective

quick
serious
careful
quiet
bad
heavy

Adverb

quickly
seriously
carefully
quietly
badly
heavily

Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. Some adjectives end in -ly too, for example:
Friendly / lively / elderly / lonely / silly / lovely
B- Adjective or adverb



Adjectives (quick/careful etc.) tell us about a noun. We use adjectives before nouns and after some verbs, especially be:

• Tom is a careful driver, (not 'a carefully driver')
• We didn't go out because of the heavy rain.
• Please be quiet.
• I was disappointed that my exam results were so bad.
We also use adjectives after the verbs look/ feel/ sound etc.
• Why do you always look so serious?
Compare:
She speaks perfect English
Adjective + noun

Compare these sentences with look:

• Tom lookedsad when I saw him. (= he seemed sad, his expression was sad)



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

• Tom drove carefully along the narrow road, (not 'drove careful')
• We didn't go out because it was raining heavily, (not 'raining heavy')
• Please speak quietly, (not 'speak quiet')
• I was disappointed that I did so badly on the exam, (not 'did so bad')
• Why do you never take me seriously?
She speaks English perfectly.
Verb + object + adverb
Tom looked at me sadly. (= he looked at me in a sad way)


C- W e also use adverbs before adjectives and other adverbs. For example:

- reasonably cheap è (adverb + adjective)
- terriblysorry è (adverb + adjective)
- incredibly quickly è (adverb + adverb)

• It's a reasonably cheap restaurant and the food is extremely good.
• Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to push you. (not 'terrible sorry')
• Maria learns languages incredibly quickly.
• The examination was surprisingly easy.

You can also use an adverb before a past participle (injured/ organised/ written etc.):
• Two people were seriously injured in the accident, (not 'serious injured')
• The meeting was very badly organised.