Learners of English grammar often tend to get mixed up about adverbs and adjectives. Let's understand the difference between the two and take a look at some adjectives that look rather like adverbs.
Adjectives:
Adjectives are used to modify or describe nouns. Adjectives answer questions about nouns “Which?”, “What kind?” and “How many?” Adjectives can occur before the noun they are modifying or after the noun.
Here are some examples of adjectives -
In the sentence “The flower is large”, if you ask what is the flower like, the answer is large – large, then, is the adjective.
In the sentence “Leila sang an old song”, “old” is the adjective modifying the noun “song”. It provides us with information about the noun.
In the sentence “I have a green hat and a mauve coat”, “green” and “mauve” are adjectives describing the nouns “ hat and “coat”.
Adverbs:
Adverbs are used to describe or modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Adverbs do not modify nouns and pronouns. Adverbs offer information about the questions “How?”, “Why?”, “Where?” and “When?”
Adverbs are quite easily recognizable. They are usually made from adjectives, by adding -LY. If the adjective ending is in a -Y, the adverb is made by adding – ILY.
In some cases, however, -LY or -ILY are not used. Take the adjective “good” which becomes the adverb “well”. Some adjectives like “fast”, “late”or “hard” remain the same as adverbs.
Adverbs are often placed at the end of a sentence.
Here are some examples of adverbs -
In the sentence “He dances skillfully”, “skillfully” is the adverb that has been modified from the adjective “skillful”. It tells us how he dances. That is, the adverb “skillfully” modifies the verb “dances”.
Let's take the sentence “The officer is extremely charming.” Here “extremely” is the adverb modifying the adjective “charming”.
In the sentence “A beautifully cold drink”, “beautifully” is the adverb that modifies the adjective “cold”.
Adjectives that are not adverbs:
Some adjectives end in -LY and are mistaken for adverbs, but are not adverbs and cannot be turned into adverbs either. Some of these are -
- Lively
- Lovely
- Silly
- Friendly
- Beastly
- Ghastly
- Elderly
- Worldly
- Manly
- Timely
However, some adjectives that end in -LY, like “Daily”, “Weekly”, “Monthly” or “Yearly”, can also be adverbs.
The word “Near” can be both an adjective and an adverb. In the sentence “The work will be completed near Easter”, “near” is an adjective modifying the noun “Easter”.
In the sentence “It came near and we nearly ran”, “near” and “nearly” are adverbs describing the verbs “came” and “ran” .
Sounds confusing? Well, that's the charm of the English language.