Adjectives/adverbs

Adjectives - word order: When there are two or more adjectives before a
noun there are some complicated "rules" for the order in which they should
appear. These are the most important:
1. opinion adjectives come before fact adjectives
2. fact adjectives appear as follows: size - age - colour - origin - material
Here are some examples:

a silly old man (an old silly man )

a beautiful blue butterfly (a blue beautiful butterfly )

an interesting historical film (a historical interesting film)

a huge metal box (a metal huge box )

a new red dress (a red new dress )

little Russian dolls (Russian little dolls )

You will need to consult a good reference grammar for full details on the
order of adjectives, and how they should be punctuated.
Adjectives: -ed or -ing? English contains numerous -ed or -ing adjective
pairs derived from verbs. To avoid mixing these up, remember that the edadjectives are used to describe how you feel, and the -ing adjectives are
used for what it is that makes you feel that way. Here are some examples:

I feel tired. - Working in the garden all day is very tiring.

I am bored. - This grammar lesson is boring.

She was disappointed. - Her math test score was disappointing.

I'm interested in Ancient Egypt. - I think Ancient Egypt isinteresting.

He was shocked. - He found your behaviour shocking.

I'm very confused by this film. - This film is very confusing.

Adjective or adverb? In English most (but not all) adverbs have a different
form (spelling) than their corresponding adjective. It is important, therefore,
that you know whether you need an adjective or an adverb in the sentences
you want to say or write. Generally, adjectives are used to describe nouns
and adverbs are used with verbs to say how things are done. In the
following examples, the adjectives are red and the adverbs are blue:

He's a beautiful singer. - He sings beautifully.

She's a very quick runner. - She can run very quickly.

He's a careless writer. - He writes carelessly.

She's a good worker. - She works well.

Adverbs are also used to give extra information about adjectives (or other
adverbs), as in the following examples:

I am extremely happy in my new job.

She's in hospital with a seriously injured neck.

It's incredibly easy to make a mistake when knitting.

The girl climbed dangerously high up the tree.

Because of the thick fog I drove extremely carefully.

Adverb phrases: functions

Adverb phrases + verbs
We use adverb phrases most commonly to modify verbs. In the examples the adverb
phrases are in bold. The verbs that they modify are underlined:
Children grow up really quickly.
I exercise very regularly and I eat quite healthily.

Adverb phrases + be
We use adverb phrases with be. This is especially typical of adverbs of place:
Im upstairs. Ill only be a minute.
A: Have you seen my gloves?
B: Theyre right there, on the table.

Adverb phrases + adjectives/adverbs

We use adverb phrases (adv) to modify adjectives and other adverbs:
I found it [ADV] extremely
He drives

[ADV]

[adjective]

difficult to talk to her.

really [ADV] carefully.

Adverb phrases + other phrases

We use adverb phrases (adv) to modify noun phrases (np) and prepositional phrases:
Thats [ADV] quite
There was

[ADV]

We climbed

[NP] a

tree. (its a tree that is special in some way, e.g. its very big)

hardly [pronoun] anyone at the concert.

[ADV]

right

[prepositional phrase]

over the top of the hill and down again.

Adverb phrases + determiners

We use adverb phrases to modify determiners, especially words like all, some, half,
many (quantifiers):
Only half of my friends could come to my party.
Very few people have heard of my city. Its very small.

Adverbs: types

Time, place and manner adverbs (early, there, slowly)

Time adverbs
Time adverbs tell us about when something happens.

already

lately

still

tomorrow

early

now

soon

yesterday

finally

recently

today

yet

Have you seen Laurie today?

Id prefer to leave early.
I went to the cinema on my own recently.
Theres been an increase in house burglary lately.

Place adverbs
Place adverbs tell us about where something happens or where something is.
There was somebody standing nearby.
Is that your scarf there?
You go upstairs and do your homework. Ill come up in a minute.

Manner adverbs
Manner adverbs tell us about the way something happens or is done.

accurately

beautifully

expertly

professionally

anxiously

carefully

greedily

quickly

badly

cautiously

loudly

quietly

Manner adverbs are often formed from adjectives by adding -ly:

She spoke very loudly. We could all hear what she was saying.
We waited anxiously by the phone.
We walked up the stairs very quietly because Mum and Dad were asleep.
Some common manner adverbs have the same form as adjectives and they have
similar meanings (e.g. fast, right, wrong, straight, tight).

adjective

adverb

I was never a fast swimmer

Driving fast is dangerous

adjective

adverb

All of your answers were wrong.

People always spell my name wrong.

Is that the right time?

That builder never does anything right!

My hair is straight.

Lets go straight to the airport.

Degree adverbs (slightly) and focusing adverbs (generally)

Degree and focusing adverbs are the most common types of modifiers of adjectives
and other adverbs. Degree adverbs express degrees of qualities, properties, states,
conditions and relations. Focusing adverbs point to something.

Degree adverbs

absolutely

enough

perfectly

somewhat

a (little) bit

entirely

pretty

terribly

a lot

extremely

quite

too

almost

fairly

rather

totally

awfully

highly

remarkably

utterly

completely

lots

slightly

very

Mary will be staying a bit longer. (a bit longer = for a little more time)
It all happened pretty quickly.
She was quite surprised they came, actually.

It was 3.52 if you want to be totally accurate.

Focusing adverbs

especially

just

mainly

particularly

generally

largely

only

simply

I just wanted to ask you what you thought.

I wouldnt particularly like to move to a modern house.

Evaluative adverbs (surprisingly) and viewpoint adverbs (personally)

We put some adverbs outside the clause. They modify the whole sentence or
utterance. Evaluative and viewpoint adverbs are good examples of this:
The electric car, surprisingly, does not really offer any advantages over petrol cars.
(evaluative)
Personally, I think the show was great. (viewpoint)

Linking adverbs (then, however)

Linking adverbs show a relationship between two clauses or sentences (e.g. a
sequence in time, cause and effect, contrast between two things):
I left my house in the morning

[sequence]then

I went to pick up Leanne at her house.

[cause]We

talked until the early hours and [effect]consequently I overslept the next
morning. (the result of the late night is that I was late the next morning)
The sun will be shining in France.

Warning:

[contrast]However,

heavy rain is expected in Spain.

We can use then and consequently to join clauses or sentences. We usually

use but not however to connect two clauses in the same sentence:
There was no room for them but they got on the train.
There was no room for them. However, they got on the train.

Exercise - Adjective or Adverb

Write down the correct form of the word in brackets (adjective or adverb).
1.

Tom is (slow)

. He works
slow

.
slowly

2.

Sue is a (careful)

girl. She climbed up the ladder

3.

The dog is (angry)

. It barks

4.

He acted (excellent)

5.

They learn English (easy)

6.

Max is a (good)

7.

It's (awful)

8.

Dogs rely on their noses as they can smell (extreme / good)

10.

actor.

. They think English is an

singer. He sings

language.

cold today. The cold wind is

The little boy looked (sad)

me

. He's an

true, why does dog food smell so (terrible)

9.

.
. If that is

?
. I went over to comfort him and he looked at

.
I tasted the soup (careful)

but it tasted (wonderful)