Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe nouns. They usually go before nouns. For example:
- The young boy had a small dog.
- I bought an expensive watch.
- It’s a beautiful day.
- We’re having a small party.
Adjectives can also be used with (be), they go after the verb (be). For example:
- Your house is lovely.
- We are tired.
- I think it’s cool.
- His hair is strange.
We can use other verbs instead of the verb (be) in the same way, these are known as ‘linking’ verbs, and they include verbs such as become, seem, appear and sensory verbs such as look, small, taste, sound and taste. For example:
- He wants to become famous.
- That smells delicious!
- That sounds great.
- You seem tired.
Order of Adjectives
When we use more than one adjective to describe a noun, there is an order we should follow. This is not a very strict rule and more of a guideline we use without learning. See the box below with a few sample sentences.
So, it would sound strange to say ‘My fat, Greek, big wedding’, or to say ‘You old, silly man!’ Instead, we naturally say “My big, fat, Greek wedding’ and ‘you silly, old man’!
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that describe verbs, but they can also describe adjectives and other adverbs. For example:
- He ran quickly. (describing verb)
- It is very expensive. (describing adjective)
- He talks extremely quickly. (describing adverb)
There are many different types of adverbs, see the chart below.
This page will focus on adverbs of frequency, adverbs of manner and adverbs degree. We will look at their form, meaning and position in sentences.
Adverbs of Frequency
Adverbs of frequency talk about HOW OFTEN we do things, or things happen. Here is a general outline of some adverbs of frequency.
Adverbs of frequency usually go before the verb and after (to be). For example:
- They usually go before the verb!
- I always leave for work at 8:15 a.m.
- He is always late for work on Fridays but he is never late on Mondays.
However, sometimes they can go at the beginning of sentences (signposting adverbs). For example:
- Occasionally, people ask us are we twins.
- Sometimes I leave a little later.
They can also go at the end of the sentence. For example:
- I don’t go to church very often.
- He calls over for a cup of tea sometimes.
Adverbs of Degree
Adevrbs of degree show the amount or intensity of an adjective, verb of adverb they come before. For example:
- You are absolutely correct. (describing adjective)
- I completely disagree with you. (describing verb)
- He spoke quite slowly. (describing adverb)
Adverbs of degree usually come before the word they describe, but they can also come after this word and/ or at the end of a sentence. For example:
- I understand what you’re saying but I disagree completely.
See the chart below for a general guideline on how strongly an adverb of degree can describe an adjective, verb or adverb, with a sample sentence for each.
Other common adverbs include rather (more formal for really), too (meaning more than wanted/ a problem) and fairly (similar to quite or somewhat). There are many more.
One of the most common adverbs of degree nowadays is ‘super’, this is technically ‘slang’ because it is an adjective, however, it is now, unfortunately, super common.
Adverbs of Manner
Adverbs of manner describe the way, or how we do things. For example:
- He walked slowly to the bus stop.
- She listened carefully to the teacher.
- She doesn’t play the piano badly.
Looking at the example above, we can notice some simple rules for these adverbs:
- They go after the verb (walked slowly), or after a verb + object (play the piano badly)
Sometimes we cannot place the adverb after the verb because we cannot separate the verb and the object. For example:
He wanted badly the prize ⮽ He wanted the prize badly. ✅
- We usually add ‘ly’ to an adjective to make it an adverb of degree
Slow – slowly careful – carefully bad – badly
Note – when an adjective ends in ‘y’ we must drop the ‘y’ and add ‘ily’ instead. For example – happy – happily healthy – healthily funny – funnily
There are some irregular Adverbs of Manner, for example:
Adjective – Adverb
Good – well …….. She did really well in the test.
Hard – hard ……… I worked hard all day.
Fast – fast ……… Tom never drives fast.
Late – late ……… I arrived late.
Straight – straight …. I came straight home after work.
Note – the words ‘lately’ and ‘hardly’ have different meanings.
Lately = Recently ……. I have been quite sick lately.
Hardly = Very little …. I have hardly any money.