adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives and Adverbs in English

1. Basic difference
Adjectives describe nouns: a careful driver, perfect English.
Adverbs describe verbs: drive carefully, speak perfectly.

2. Forms
Many adverbs end in -ly: quickly, seriously, carefully, heavily.
Adjectives usually do not end in -ly.

3. Exceptions
Some words ending in -ly are adjectives: friendly, lovely.
Some words have the same form as both adjective and adverb: fast, hard, late.
Example: She is a fast runner (adjective) / She runs fast (adverb).

4. Adjectives after linking verbs
Certain verbs are followed by adjectives, not adverbs: be, look, feel, sound, taste, seem.
Examples:
• You look tired (not *tiredly*).
• The tea tastes strange.

5. Adverbs describing actions
Adverbs show how an action happens:
• She spoke quietly.
• The children were playing happily.

6. Adverbs modifying adjectives, other adverbs, and past participles
Adverbs can modify adjectives: reasonably cheap, terribly sorry.
They can modify other adverbs: incredibly quickly.
They can come before past participles: seriously injured, badly organized.

7. Special pairs
• good = adjective: She is a good student.
• well = adverb: She speaks well.
Well can also be an adjective meaning “in good health”: I don’t feel well (“I am not healthy”).

8. Hard vs. hardly
• hard = with effort: She works hard.
• hardly = very little, almost not; usually goes before the verb.
Examples:
• We hardly know each other (“We know each other very little”).
• It’s hardly a crisis (“It is certainly not a crisis”).
• Hardly anybody passed the exam.
• There was hardly any difference.
With can: I can hardly walk (“Walking is almost impossible”).