Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives

• Adjectives fall into two categories: descriptive and limiting.

• Descriptive adjectives are those which describe the color, size, or quality of a person or thing (noun or pronoun)

• Limiting adjectives place restrictions on the words they modify (quantity, distance, possession, etc.)

DESCRIPTIVE LIMITING

Beautiful LargeRedInterestingImportantColorful

Cardinal number (one, two)Ordinal number (first, second)Possessives (my, your , his)Demonstratives (this, that, these, those)Quantity (few, many, much)Articles (a, an, the)

Adverbs

• Adverbs modify verbs (except linking verbs), adjectives, or other adverbs. Many descriptive adjectives can be changed to adverb by adding –ly to the adjectives base.

ADJECTIVES ADVERBS

BrightCarefulQuiet

BrightlyCarefullyQuietly

The following words are also adverbs: so, very, almost, soon, often, fast, well, there, too. An adverb answers the question: How…?• Ex: John is reading carefully. (How is John reading?)• Rita drank too much coffee.(How much coffee did she drink?)• I don’t play tennis very well.(How well do I play?)• He was driving fast.(How was he driving?)• She reviewed her notes carefully.(How did she review her notes?)

Circle the correct form in parentheses.1. Rita plays the violin (good/well).2. That is an (intense/intensely) novel.3. The sun is shining (bright/brightly).4. The girls speak (fluent/fluently) French.5. The boys speak Spanish (fluent/fluently).6. The table has a (smooth/smoothly) surface.7. We must figure our income tax returns

(accurate/accurately).8. We don’t like to drink (bitter/bitterly) tea.9. The plane will arrive (soon/soonly).10. He had an accident because he was driving

too (fast/fastly).

Adjectives with linking (copulative) verbA special category of verbs connects or links the subject with the subject complement (predicate adjectives). Unlike most verbs, these do not show action. They must be modified by adjectives, not adverbs.Ex: Be, become, remain, stay, appear,

seem, sound, feel, look, smell, taste.• Mary feels bad about her test grade.• Children become tired quite easily.

Be, become, and remain can be followed by noun phrases as well as adjectives.

• They remained sad even though I tried to Adj

cheer them up

• Dough remained chairman of the board Noun

the opposition.

• Ted will be prom king this year. Noun phrase

Circle the correct form in parentheses.1. Your cold sounds (terrible/terribly).2. The pianist plays very (good/well).3. The food in the restaurant always tastes (good/well).4. The campers remained (calm/calmly) despite the

thunderstorm.5. They became (sick/sickly) after eating contaminated

food.6. Professor Calandra looked (quick/quickly) at the

students’ sketches.7. Paco was working (diligent/diligently) on the project.8. Paul protested (vehement/vehemently) about the new

proposals.9. Our neighbors appeared (relaxed/relaxedly) after their

vacation.10. The music sounded too (noisy/noisily) to be classical.

Circle the correct form in parentheses.1. Your cold sounds (terrible/terribly).2. The pianist plays very (good/well).3. The food in the restaurant always tastes (good/well).4. The campers remained (calm/calmly) despite the

thunderstorm.5. They became (sick/sickly) after eating contaminated

food.6. Professor Calandra looked (quick/quickly) at the

students’ sketches.7. Paco was working (diligent/diligently) on the project.8. Paul protested (vehement/vehemently) about the new

proposals.9. Our neighbors appeared (relaxed/relaxedly) after their

vacation.10. The music sounded too (noisy/noisily) to be classical.