ADJECTIVE or ADVERB

I. ADJECTIVES
We use adjectives to describe nouns and
pronouns.
Adjectives can come before nouns or after
linking verbs.
Before the noun:
He dropped the hot plate.
I have a black cat.
The small boy ran down the street.
What a beautiful view!
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• After a linking verb:
• He seems tired.
• The view is beautiful.
• The weather became cold.
• My cat is black.
(Linking verbs are verbs like 'be', 'become' and
'seem' which are not actions but instead link the
subject to an adjective, noun or phrase that gives us
more information about the subject.)
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
We make the comparative and superlative of
adjectives by adding either '-er / -est' or using
'more / most'.
• She is tall.
• She is taller than her sister.
• She is the tallest person in the class.
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II. ADVERBS
Adverbs are used to describe verbs, adjectives
or other adverbs. They are often (but not
always) made by adding 'ly' to the adjective.
• I walked slowly ('slowly' tells us about the verb
'walk').
• They worked quickly.
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• We make the comparative and superlative
forms of adverbs by using 'more / most'.
• She sang loudly.
• She sang more loudly than her friend.
• She sang most loudly in the class.
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Kinds of Adverbs
a. Adverb of Manner
(e.g.: slowly, carefully, awfully)

These adverbs are put behind the direct object (or behind the verb if there's no
direct object).

subject verb(s) direct object adverb

He drove the car carefully.

He drove carefully.
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Exercise I
Rewrite the sentences and put the adverbs in correctly.
• She speaks. (slowly) →
• They sang. (wonderfully) →
• He treated her. (respectfully) →
• John speaks English. (well) →
• The dog barks. (loudly) →
• My sister plays the piano. (awfully) →
• She met him. (secretly) →
• The children laughed. (happily) →
• She hurt her leg. (badly) →
• They sneaked out of the house (quietly). →
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b. Adverbs of Place
(e.g.: here, there, behind, above)

Like adverbs of manner, these adverbs are put behind the direct object or the verb.

subject verb(s) direct object adverb

I didn't see him here.

He stayed behind.
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Exercise II
Make sentences and put the adverbs (in italic print) in correctly
(behind the verb or object).
• is / over there / the cinema -
• inside / go / let's -
• the kitchen / downstairs / is -
• playing / the kids / are / outside -
• she / not / been / here / has -
• the bathroom / is / upstairs -
• were / everywhere / we / for / looking / you -
• we / anywhere / you / find / couldn't -
• ? / there / a post office / nearby / is -
• must / we / walk / back home –
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB

c. Adverbs of Time
(e.g.: recently, now, then, yesterday)

Adverbs of time are usually put at the end of the sentence.

subject verb(s) indirect object direct object time

I will tell you the story tomorrow.

 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB

If you don't want to put emphasis on the time, you can also put the adverb of time at
the beginning of the sentence.

time subject verb(s) indirect object direct object

Tomorrow I will tell you the story.

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Exercise III
Arrange the words to make sentences. Place time
expressions at the end of the sentence.
• haven't / recently / seen / I / him -
• I'll / you / see / soon -
• afterwards / met / at the pub / him / we -
• help / immediately / I / need -
• was / arrogant / he / then / very -
• ? / now / are / where / you -
• ? / to go / where / you / do / want / today -
• ? / do / yesterday / did / you / what -
• as soon as possible / you / him / the truth / tell / should -
• hasn't won / lately / my team -
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d. Adverbs of Frequency
(e.g.: always, never, seldom, usually)

Adverbs of frequency are put directly before the main verb. If 'be' is the main verb
and there is no auxiliary verb, adverbs of frequency are put behind 'be'. Is there an
auxiliary verb, however, adverbs of frequency are put before 'be'.

subject auxiliary/be adverb main verb object, place or time

I often go swimming in the evenings.

He doesn't always play tennis.

We are usually here in summer.

I have never been abroad.

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Exercise IV
Rewrite the sentences and put the adverbs in correctly.
• I have been to London. (often) →
• Have you been to Boston? (ever) →
• He plays golf on Sundays. (sometimes) →
• The weather is bad in November. (always) →
• It rains in California. (never) →
• We have fish for dinner. (seldom) →
• She will see him. (rarely) →
• Peter doesn't get up before seven. (usually) →
• They do not play tennis on Sundays. (always) →
• Mary watches TV. (hardly / ever) →
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Exercise V
Rewrite the sentences and put the adverbs in correctly.
• We were in London. (last week) →
• He walks his dog. (rarely) →
• She waited. (patiently) →
• My father goes fishing. (always) →
• Your bedroom is. (upstairs) →
• We don't go skiing. (in summer) →
• Cats can hear. (well) →
• I saw him. (there) →
• The girl speaks English. (fluently) →
• I have seen that film. (never) / (before) →
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
• ADJECTIVE OR ADVERB?
It's important to remember to use an
adjective after a linking verb. However, this
can be tricky as some verbs can be used as
both normal verbs and as linking verbs. One
test is to replace the verb with the same form
of 'be' and see if the sentence still makes
sense. If it does, the verb is being used as a
linking verb and so needs an adjective, not an
adverb.
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
• He smells the hot soup carefully. (Here we are talking about
the action of smelling and using smell as a normal verb, so
we need an adverb.)
• The soup smells good. (Here we are using 'smell' as a
linking verb, to describe the soup. We can replace 'smells'
with 'is' and the sentence still makes sense. So, we need an
adjective.)
• He looked tiredly at the dirty kitchen. (Here we are talking
about the action of looking and using 'look' as a normal
verb, so we use an adverb to describe the way of looking.)
• You look beautiful. (Here we are using 'look' as a linking
verb, to give more information about the person. We can
replace 'look' with 'are' and the sentence still makes sense.
So we need an adjective.)
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Irregular forms

Normally, we make an adverb by adding 'ly' to an

adjective.
• Careful (adjective): He is always careful.
• Carefully (adverb): She put the glasses down carefully.
• Quiet (adjective): This is a quiet room.
• Quietly (adverb): She spoke quietly.
• Bad (adjective): This coffee is bad!
• Badly (adverb): He sings badly!
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If the adjective ends in 'y', we change 'y' to 'i'
and add 'ly'. If the adjective ends in 'le', we drop
'e' and add 'y'.
• Happy (adjective): She looks very happy.
• Happily (adverb): He sang happily.
• Gentle (adjective): It's a gentle cat.
• Gently (adverb): He stroked the cat gently.
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However, there are some exceptions.
• Fast (adjective): That's a fast car.
• Fast (adverb): She walks fast.
• Early (adjective): She was early for the meeting.
• Early (adverb): He arrived early.
• Late (adjective): He is always late!
• Late (adverb): He got up late this morning ('lately'
is also an adverb but means 'recently').
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• Good (adjective): That is a good book.
• Well (adverb): She did well on the exam ('well'
can also be an adjective; see below).
• Hard (adjective): Maths is hard!
• Hard (adverb): She tried hard ('hardly' is also
an adverb, but means 'almost none'; see
below).
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There are also some adjectives that end in 'ly' and don't have
an adverb form. Instead we use 'in a ---way'. These are
friendly, lovely, lonely, lively, and silly.
• He talked to me in a friendly way.

Good / well
'Well' can be confusing because it is both the adverb form of
'good', and an adjective that means 'healthy and fine'.
• My mother is well ('well' is an adjective that means 'healthy
and fine').
• He did the work well ('well' is an adverb meaning 'in a good
way').
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Of course, we also use 'good' as an adjective.
• This meal is good!
• He can speak good German.

Hard / hardly
'Hard' is both an adjective and an adverb.
• The table is hard (= adjective, meaning 'not soft' or 'difficult').
• She works hard (= adverb, meaning 'with a lot of effort').
• 'Hardly' is also an adverb, but it means 'almost nothing' or 'almost
none'.
• She hardly works (= she does almost no work).
• I have hardly any money (= I have almost no money).
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Late / lately

'Late' is an adjective and an adverb. There is also

an adverb 'lately', which means 'recently'.
• I'm late (= adjective, meaning 'not on time').
• He came late (= adverb, meaning 'not on
time').
• I've been working a lot lately (= an adverb
meaning 'recently').
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Exercise VI
Choose the correct form of the word in brackets (adjective or
adverb)
• John held the plate ____________ (careful / carefully)
• Julia is a person. (careful / carefully)
• I ran to the station. (quick / quickly)
• The journey was (quick / quickly)
• You look ____________. Didn’t you sleep well? (tired/tiredly)
• The baby rubbed her eyes (tired / tiredly)
• She sang ____________ (happy / happily)
• You sound (happy / happily)
• I speak English ____________ (well / good)
• Her English is ____________ (well / good)
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
• She cooks ____________ (terrible / terribly)
• He is a ____________ cook. (terrible / terribly)
• The music was __________ (beautiful / beautifully)
• She plays the piano ____________ (beautiful / beautifully)
• That was a ____________ answer. (clever / cleverly)
• Your flat seems ____________ today. (tidy / tidily)
• She answered ____________ (clever / cleverly)
• He put the dishes away ____________ (tidy / tidily)
• He spoke ____________ (warm / warmly)
• She is a very ____________ person. (warm / warmly)
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Exercise VII
Write down the correct form of the word in brackets (adjective or adverb).
• Tom is ______________ (slow) . He works .
• Sue is a ______________ (careful) girl. She climbed up the ladder .
• The dog is ______________ (angry) . It barks .
• He acted ______________ (excellent) . He's an actor.
• They learn English ______________ (easy) . They think English is an language.
• Max is a ______________ (good) singer. He sings .
• It's______________ (awful) cold today. The cold wind is .
• Dogs rely on their noses as they can smell ______________ (extreme / good) . If
that is true, why does dog food smell so ______________ (terrible) ?
• The little boy looked ______________ (sad) . I went over to comfort him and he
looked at me .
• I tasted the soup ______________ (careful) but it tasted (wonderful) .
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Exercise VIII
“The three little pigs” – Part 1
Fill in the correct form of the adjective or adverb.
Once upon a time there were three little pigs who wanted to see the world.
When the they left home, their mum gave them some advice:
• Whatever you do, do it the ______________ (good) you can.
• So the three pigs wandered through the world and were
the ______________ (happy) pigs you've ever seen.
• They were playing ______________ (funny) games all summer long, but then
came autumn and each pig wanted to build a house.
• The first pig was not only the (small) but also the ______________ (lazy) of
the pigs.
• He ______________ (quick) built a house out of straw.
• The second pig made his house out of wood which was a
bit ______________ (difficult) than building a straw house.
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
• The third pig followed his mum's advice and built
a strong house out of bricks, which was
the ______________ (difficult) house to build.
• The pig worked very ______________ (hard) , but
finally got his house ready before winter.
• During the cold winter months, the three little
pigs lived ______________ ______________
(extreme) (good) in their houses.
• They (regular) visited one another and had the
______________ (wonderful) time of their lives.
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
• Exercise IX
• “The three little pigs” – Part 2
• Fill in the correct form of the adjective or adverb.
• One night, however, a wolf came to the place where the three little
pigs lived. It was the ______________ (horrible) wolf in the whole
wide world.
• Being ______________ (terrible) hungry, he went straight to the
straw house.
• "Let me in, little pig," the wolf shouted out ______________
(angry) , "or I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down!"
• The pig didn't let him in, but as the house was made out of straw,
the wolf blew it down ______________ (easy) .
• The little pig ran to his brother's house as ______________ (fast) as
he could. But the wolf followed him to the wooden house.
• "Open up, little pigs," he shouted even ______________ (angry) .
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
• Then he huffed and puffed and it didn't take him much ______________
(long) to blow the house down.
• The two pigs ______________ (nervous) ran to their brother who lived in the
brick house.
• The wolf followed them ______________ (grim) .
• "Open the door," he shouted ______________ (furious) .
• As the pigs didn't open, the wolf huffed and puffed ______________ (heavy) . But
the stone house didn't fall down.
• From all the huffing and puffing the wolf became even ______________
(hungry) .
• With his last power he (slow) ______________ climbed up the house to get in
through the chimney.
• The pigs saw this and ______________ (hasty) lit a fire.
• When the wolf climbed down the chimney, he fell into the fire which
was(awful) hot.
• He burnt his bum ______________ (bad) and ran away.
• From that day on, the pigs had no more trouble with the wolf and they lived
______________ (happy) ever after.
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Exercise X
Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls is a group of waterfalls on the border

between the United States and Canada. The Falls
are a favourite tourist attraction. The Niagara River
drops here and although the Falls are not deep,
they are very wide and the amount of water is
enormous. So it is very noisy near the Falls. That's
why the Iroquois tribe, who used to live here, called
the falls Niagara (meaning “thunder of waters”).
 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB

Image from: www.viator.com

 ADJECTIVE or ADVERB
Choose the correct form (adjective or adverb).
• Niagara Falls form a
______________ (natural/naturally) border between
the United States and Canada.
• Tourists visit this place ______________
(frequent/frequently).
• The Falls are very ____________ (noisy/noisily).
• So you must speak ______________ (loud/loudly) or
nobody can understand you.
• Many years ago, the Iroquois tribe lived
here ______________ (peaceful/peacefully)
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Comparison of Adjectives
Positive Form
Use the positive form of the adjective if the
comparison contains one of the following
expressions:
• as … as
• Example: Jane is as tall as John.
• not as … as / not so … as
• Example: John is not as tall as Arnie.
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Comparative Form and Superlative Form (-er/-est)
 one-syllable adjectives (clean, new, cheap)
 two-syllable adjectives ending in -y or -er (easy, happy, pretty, dirty, clever)

positive
comparative form superlative form
form

clean cleaner (the) cleanest

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Exceptions in spelling when adding -er / -est
• silent ‘e’ is dropped
Example: late-later-latest
• final ‘y’ after a consonant becomes i
Example: easy-easier-easiest
• final consonant after short, stressed vowel is
doubled
Example: hot-hotter-hottest
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Comparative Form and Superlative Form (more/most)

 adjectives of three or more syllables (and two-syllable adjectives not ending in -y/-er)

positive
comparative form superlative form
form

difficult more difficult most difficult