Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs are two of the four main word classes in English, along with nouns and verbs.

Adjectives describe the qualities of people and things. Words like poor, blue and interesting are adjectives. Adverbs indicate the time, place, manner, degree or frequency of an event or action. Adverbs have many different functions and can have different positions in a clause.

Adjectives

Adjectives are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adverbs. Examples of adjectives are: big, small, blue, old, rich and nice. They give us more information about people, animals or things represented by nouns and pronouns.

Adjectives

Adjectives are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adverbs. Examples of adjectives are: big, small, blue, old, rich and nice. They give us more information about people, animals or things represented by nouns and pronouns:

That’s a big house.

Look at the grey horse.

Some dogs have long tails.

She is tall.

Meanings of adjectives

Adjectives give us more information. They modify or describe features and qualities of people, animals and things.

Here are some of the common meanings.

examples	meaning
I am fond* of ice cream.Cairo is different from Alexandria.His car is similar to mine.Other examples:keen (on), near (to), aware (of)*	Relations between people and things. These adjectives usually require a word or phrase (complement) to complete their meaning.
He’s generous.She’s a kind* woman.The waiter was very polite.Other examples:talkative, cruel, cooperative, helpful, useful*	Descriptions of people and things in terms of their actions.
That’s an old* house.The Olympic stadium is big.Other examples:tall, old, good, rough, true, ugly, red, heavy*	Features that will last a long time or will not change (permanent).
Anyone hungry? Lunch is nearly ready.It’s so cold* in Nick’s house.Other examples:absent, ill, dry, full, lonely, wet, hot, thirsty, angry*	States and conditions that can change.
I saw a great French* film last night.I don’t like modern paintings.I live in a detached house.Other examples:organic (vegetables), impressionist (painter), wild (salmon)*	Classifying people and things into types.

Oppositeness

Most common adjectives are members of a pair of opposites (antonyms):

beautiful – ugly	dead – alive	happy – sad	rough – smooth
big – small	dry – wet	heavy – light	tall – short
cold – hot	good – bad

Gradable and ungradable

Many pairs of opposites are gradable, i.e. they have different degrees of the same feature:

Small:

This suitcase is extremely small.

This suitcase is very small.

This suitcase is quite small.

Hot:

It was reasonably hot in Italy this summer.

It was quite hot in Italy this summer.

It was pretty hot in Italy this summer.

It was very hot in Italy this summer.

It was extremely hot in Italy this summer.

One type of adjective is not gradable. These are the adjectives that we use to classify people and things into types:

Warning:

These vegetables are organic.

Not: ~~These vegetables are very organic~~.

I like salmon especially when it is wild.

Not: ~~I like salmon especially when it is quite wild~~.

Adjective phrases

An adjective phrase always has an adjective acting as the head. The adjective phrase may also contain words or phrases before or after the head (modifiers and complements):

Adjective (head):

That’s a lovely cake.

These flowers are wonderful.

Adjective preceded by a modifier (underlined):

That soup is pretty cold.

Many of the exercises are fairly difficult.

Adjective + a modifier after it:

The food was tasty enough.

The car is economical for its size.

Adjective + a word or phrase which is required to complete its meaning (a complement):

She was aware of the danger of travelling alone.

Some people weren’t willing to pay extra to book a seat on the plane.

Adjective preceded by a modifier + a word or phrase which is required to complete its meaning (a complement):

We’re not very keen on having an activity holiday.

Are you really interested in rock and roll?

Some adjective phrases have more complex structures

Adverbs

Adverbs are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adjectives. We use adverbs to add more information about a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a clause or a whole sentence and, less commonly, about a noun phrase

Adverbs: uses

Can you move it carefully? It’s fragile.

Quickly! We’re late.

She swims really well.

Don’t go so fast.

You have to turn it clockwise.

Come over here.

Actually, I don’t know her.

I haven’t seen them recently.

The bathroom’s upstairs on the left.

Adverbs: meanings and functions

Adverbs have many different meanings and functions. They are especially important for indicating the time, manner, place, degree and frequency of something.

time	I never get up early* at the weekends.*
manner	Walk across the road carefully!
place	When we got there, the tickets had sold out.
degree	It’s rather* cold, isn’t it?*
frequency	I’m always* losing my keys.*

Adverbs: types

Time, place and manner adverbs (early, there, slowly)

Time adverbs

Time adverbs tell us about when something happens.

already	lately	still	tomorrow
early	now	soon	yesterday
finally	recently	today	yet

Have you seen Laurie today?

I’d prefer to leave early.

I went to the cinema on my own recently.

There’s been an increase in house burglary lately.

Place adverbs

Place adverbs tell us about where something happens or where something is.

There was somebody standing nearby.

Is that your scarf there?

You go upstairs and do your homework. I’ll come up in a minute.

Manner adverbs

Manner adverbs tell us about the way something happens or is done.

accurately	beautifully	expertly	professionally
anxiously	carefully	greedily	quickly
badly	cautiously	loudly	quietly

Manner adverbs are often formed from adjectives by adding -ly:

She spoke very loudly. We could all hear what she was saying.

We waited anxiously by the phone.

We walked up the stairs very quietly because Mum and Dad were asleep.

Some common manner adverbs have the same form as adjectives and they have similar meanings (e.g. fast, right, wrong, straight, tight).

adjective	adverb
I was never a fast* swimmer*	Driving fast* is dangerous*
All of your answers were wrong.	People always spell my name wrong.
Is that the right* time?*	That builder never does anything right!
My hair is straight.	Let’s go straight* to the airport.*

Degree adverbs (slightly) and focusing adverbs (generally)

Degree and focusing adverbs are the most common types of modifiers of adjectives and other adverbs. Degree adverbs express degrees of qualities, properties, states, conditions and relations. Focusing adverbs point to something.

Degree adverbs

absolutely	enough	perfectly	somewhat
a (little) bit	entirely	pretty	terribly
a lot	extremely	quite	too
almost	fairly	rather	totally
awfully	highly	remarkably	utterly
completely	lots	slightly	very

Mary will be staying a bit longer. (a bit longer = for a little more time)

It all happened pretty quickly.

She was quite surprised they came, actually.

It was £3.52 if you want to be totally accurate.

Focusing adverbs

especially	just	mainly	particularly
generally	largely	only	simply

I just wanted to ask you what you thought.

I wouldn’t particularly like to move to a modern house.

Evaluative adverbs (surprisingly) and viewpoint adverbs (personally)

We put some adverbs outside the clause. They modify the whole sentence or utterance. Evaluative and viewpoint adverbs are good examples of this:

The electric car, surprisingly, does not really offer any advantages over petrol cars. (evaluative)

Personally, I think the show was great. (viewpoint)

Linking adverbs (then, however)

Linking adverbs show a relationship between two clauses or sentences (e.g. a sequence in time, cause and effect, contrast between two things):

I left my house in the morning [sequence]then I went to pick up Leanne at her house.

[cause]We talked until the early hours and [effect]consequently I overslept the next morning. (the result of the late night is that I was late the next morning)