ADVERBS AND ADJECTIVES REVIEW

adjective adverb
1. The adverbs and the adjectives

Adjectives tell us something about a

dangerous dangerously
person or a thing. Adjectives can modify
nouns (girl) or pronouns (she).
careful carefully
Adverbs tell us in what way someone
does something. Adverbs can modify
verbs (drive), adjectives or other adverbs. nice nicely

adjective adverb
horrible horribly

Mandy is
Mandy drives carefully. easy easily
a careful girl.

She is electronic electronically

She drives carefully.
very careful.

Irregular forms:
Mandy is a careful driver. This sentence
is about Mandy, the driver, so use
adjective adverb
the adjective.

Mandy drives carefully. This sentence is

good well
about her way of driving, so use
the adverb.

fast fast
2. Form

Adjective + -ly
 3. Use of adverbs
adjective adverb
3.1. to modify verbs

hard hard The handball team played badly last

Saturday.

If the adjective ends in -y, change -y to -i. 3.2. to modify adjectives

Then add -ly:
It was an extremely bad match.
 happy – happily
3.3. to modify adverbs
but:
The handball team
 shy – shyly played extremely badly last Wednesday.

If the adjective ends in -le, the adverb

3.4. to modify quantities
ends in -ly:
There are quite a lot of people here.
 terrible – terribly

3.5. to modify sentences

If the adjective ends in -e, then add -ly:

Unfortunately, the flight to Dallas had

 safe – safely
been cancelled.

► Not all words ending in -ly are

4. Types of adverbs
adverbs:

 adjectives ending in -ly: friendly, 4.1. Adverbs of manner

silly, lonely, ugly

 quickly
 nouns, ending in -ly: ally, bully,
 kindly
Italy, melancholy

 verbs, ending in -ly: apply, rely, 4.2. Adverbs of degree

supply
 very
There is no adverb for an adjective
 rather
ending in -ly.
 4.3. Adverbs of frequency Both adjectives and adverbs may be
used after look, smell and taste. Mind the
 often
change in meaning.
 sometimes
Here are two examples:
4.4. Adverbs of time
adjective adverb
 now

 today
The pizza Jamie Oliver can
tastes good. taste well.
4.5. Adverbs of place (How is the (How can Jamie Oliver
pizza?) taste?)
 here

 nowhere
Peter's feet
smell bad. Peter can smell badly.
5. How do know whether to use an (How are his (How can Peter smell?)
adjective or an adverb? feet?)

John is a careful driver. – In this

sentences we say how John is – careful. Do not get confused with good/well.
If we want to say that the careful John did
not drive the usual way yesterday – we  Linda looks good. (What type of
have to use the adverb: person is she?)

 Linda looks well. (How is Linda?

 John did not
– She may have been ill, but now she is
drive carefully yesterday.
fit again.)

Here is another example:  How are you? – I'm fine, thank

you. /I'm good. (emotional state)
 I am a slow walker. (How am I?
→ slow → adjective)
 How are you? – I'm well, thank
 I walk slowly. (How do I walk? you. (physical state)
→ slowly → adverb)
One can assume that in the second/third
6. Adjective or Adverb after special sentence the adverb well is used, but this
verbs
is wrong – well can be
an adjective (meaning fit/healthy), or  Use the adjective when you say
an adverb of the adjective good. something about the person itself.

 Use the adverb, when you want

Conclusion: to say about the action.

Order of adjectives

When more than one adjective comes before a noun, the adjectives are normally in a
particular order. Adjectives which describe opinions or attitudes (e.g. amazing) usually
come first, before more neutral, factual ones (e.g. red):

She was wearing an amazing red coat.

Not: … red amazing coat

If we don’t want to emphasise any one of the adjectives, the most usual sequence of
adjectives is:

order relating to examples

1 opinion unusual, lovely, beautiful

2 size big, small, tall

3 physical quality thin, rough, untidy

4 shape round, square, rectangular

5 age young, old, youthful

6 colour blue, red, pink

7 origin Dutch, Japanese, Turkish

order relating to examples

8 material metal, wood, plastic

9 type general-purpose, four-sided, U-shaped

10 purpose cleaning, hammering, cooking

It was made of a 1strange, 6green, 8metallic material.

It’s a 2long, 4narrow, 8plastic brush.

Panettone is a 4round, 7Italian, 9bread-like Christmas cake.

Here are some invented examples of longer adjective phrases. A noun phrase which
included all these types would be extremely rare.

She was a 1beautiful, 2tall, 3thin, 5young, 6black-haired, 7Scottish woman.

What an 1amazing, 2little, 5old, 7Chinese cup and saucer!

Compound adjectives
A compound adjective is an adjective that contains two or more words.
In general we put a hyphen between two or more words (before a noun) when we want
them to act as a single idea (adjective) that describes something.
 I live in an English-speaking country.

English-speaking is an adjective (used to describe the country). We use a hyphen to

connect the word English with speaking to show that it is one adjective (or one idea).
This adjective with two words joined by the hyphen is called a compound adjective.
Some more examples of compound adjectives are:
 Our office is in a twenty-storey building.
 I have just finished reading a 300-page book.
 He is a well-known writer.

There are many types of Compound Adjectives. Here is a list of the most common types:

Periods of Time
When he have compound adjectives using a number + a time period, that word referring to
a time period is in singular form and is joined to the number with a hyphen.
 I work eight hours every day --> I work an eight-hour day
 I'm going on vacation for three weeks --> I have a three-week vacation
 There was a delay of 5 seconds --> There was a five-second delay

Notice how we normally write the number as a word, not in numerical form.

Adverbs and Compound Adjectives

Adverbs modify a verb.
 She walks slowly.

How does she walk? Slowly. Slowly is an adverb that modifies (or describes) the verb.
Adverbs can also be used to modify an adjective.
 It is very hot today. (Very is an adverb)
 She is extremely intelligent. (Extremely is an adverb)

Notice how we do not put a hyphen between an adverb and an adjective (not even before
a noun).
 It is a very hot day.
 She is an extremely intelligent girl.

Adverb + Past Participle

However when we have an Adverb + past participle, we put a hyphen between the two
words to make it a compound adjective.
 This is a brightly-lit room.
 She is a well-known actress.
 We live in a densely-populated city.

Noun + Past Participle

When we have a noun + past participle, we put a hyphen between the two words to make
it a compound adjective.
 We should start using wind-powered generators to cut costs.
 I love eating sun-dried raisins.

Noun + Present Participle

When we have a noun + present participle, we put a hyphen between the two words to
make it a compound adjective.
 I bought some mouth-watering strawberries.
 That was a record-breaking jump.

Noun + Adjective
When we have a noun + adjective, we put a hyphen between the two words to make it a
compound adjective.
 She is a world-famous singer.
 This is a smoke-free restaurant.

Adjective + Noun
When we have an adjective + noun, we put a hyphen between the two words to make it a
compound adjective.
 It was a last-minute decision.
 We watched the full-length version of the movie.

Adjective + Past Participle

When we have an adjective + past participle, we put a hyphen between the two words to
make it a compound adjective.
 That is an old-fashioned dress
 Reptiles are cold-blooded creatures.

Adjective + Present Participle

When we have an adjective + present participle, we put a hyphen between the two words
to make it a compound adjective.
 She is a good-looking girl.
 It left a long-lasting taste in my mouth.

Compound Adjectives with Proper Nouns

A proper noun is the name of something or someone (e.g. John, Susan Sanders).
Compound Adjectives made from Proper nouns don't need a hyphen though must have
capital letters.
 I bought the James Jackson tickets for us.

James Jackson is a compound adjective describing the tickets (What type of tickets?
James Jackson tickets). Since the adjective is a Proper noun, we don't need a hyphen
between the two names.

How do we know when to put a hyphen?

If you can use the word “and” between the two adjectives or words, then a hyphen isn't
necessary.
 She has a big blue book.

(Big and Blue are adjectives)

Can we say: She has a big and blue book. (Yes, it is possible)
 He is a world famous singer. (Is this correct?)
Can we say: He is a world and famous singer. No, it doesn't sound correct so we need a
hyphen to join the words worldand famous:
 He is a world-famous singer. (Correct)

Also, look at the following:

 It's an old coal-mining town

Notice how we didn't put a hyphen between the word old and coal. If we had have done
that, we would have been referring to old coal, as in coal that is old. We want to emphasis
that the town in old and not the coal.
Here we can say it is old and a coal-mining one

1. Jack spoke confidently /CONFIDENT to the audience urging them to elect him
president of the union. He knew he had a good/WELL chance of winning the election.

2. Melanie quickly/QUICK ate her lunch. She knew the meeting was important /
IMPORTANTLY and she didn't want to be late.

3. Sophie lived in Thailand for several years. She speaks Thai fluently/FLUENT, and she
knows the culture very well/GOOD.

4. The hot/HOTLY, humid weather made it difficult to enjoy the tropical beach. Miriam
seemed more uncomfortable/UNCOMFORTABLY than relaxed.

5. The entrance examination is extremely/EXTREME challenging. Very few people make

it into the prestigious/PRESTIGIOUSLY medical school.