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Ad: Distinguish adjectives from adverbs.

Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

The most common error is the use of adjectives where adverbs are needed. The italicized words below modify verbs:

WRONG: I run slow. You behaved bad. We played good.

RIGHT: I run slowly. You behaved badly. We played well.

Whereas action verbs require adverbs (“I run slowly”), linking verbs (“to be,” “to become,” “to feel,” “to seem”) require predicate adjectives. Often people mistakenly use adverbs with “to feel”:

WRONG: I feel badly.

RIGHT: I feel bad.

“To act” can be an action verb, requiring an adverb, or a linking verb, requiring a predicate adjective:

ACTION VERB: The Oscar winner acted brilliantly. (adverb)

LINKING VERB: Mom knew I had broken her vase, although I acted innocent. (adverb)

“Well” can be an adverb meaning “skillfully” (“I drive well”) or an adjective meaning “healthy” (“I don’t feel well”).

The use of adjectives with linking verbs can be confusing, as the play below demonstrates.

Deg: Use comparative and superlative degrees correctly.

Four errors are common.

1. Avoid using (a) superlatives to compare two things.

WRONG (two things): The best boxer won.

RIGHT: The better boxer won

2. Avoid redundant comparatives.

WRONG (redundant): She is more livelier today.

RIGHT: She is more lively today.

3. Avoid using superlatives as vague intensifiers.

WRONG (vague): She is the sweetest girl.

RIGHT: She is a sweet girl. She is the sweetest girl I know.

4. Avoid attributing degrees to absolutes.

WRONG (absolutes): more superior, more immortal, most perfect, very unique, most totally.

For related rules, see Comp (incomplete comparisons) in Part Two.

Neg: Avoid double negatives.

Double negatives cancel each other:

Redundant: I never did nothing.

Right: I never did anything.

Better: I did nothing.

Art: Use articles correctly.

If your teacher marks “Art,” identify which error you made:

1. Use “a” before words that begin with consonants, “an” before words that begin with vowels.

2. Know when to use the indefinite article (“a,” “an”), the definite article (“the”), or no article:

“A” for something unspecified: She hopes to attend a West Coast college.

“A” for something not yet mentioned: A bird is perched in the tree.

“The” for something specified: The college she attends will be lucky. The bird is singing.

Plural for many or all things of a type: Colleges are recruiting her. Birds can fly.

No article for some general nouns: College helped him grow. He plans to go to college.

3. Distinguish count nouns from mass nouns. Count nouns refer to things that can be counted individually, mass nouns to things that cannot, such as “sand,” “happiness” or “gravity.” It is usually incorrect to use “a” or “an” with mass nouns and to make them plural.

WRONG: a sand

RIGHT: sand, a grain of sand

WRONG: unforeseen impacts

RIGHT: unforeseen impact

WRONG: The poet uses an imagery.

RIGHT: The poet uses imagery.

Ly: Modifiers ending in “-ly.”

Two errors are common. Identify which one you committed.

1. Do not mistake an “-ly” adjective for an adverb. Although most modifying words that end in “-ly” are adverbs, you must beware of exceptions. “Cowardly,” “dastardly,” “gingerly,” “friendly,” “likely,” “leisurely,” “lowly,” “miserly,” “niggardly” and “timely” are among the exceptions.

WRONG: The barefoot boy walks gingerly.

RIGHT: The barefoot boy takes gingerly steps.

WRONG: He behaved cowardly.

RIGHT: His behavior was cowardly.

WRONG: Class ended timely.

RIGHT: Class ended in timely fashion.

WRONG: She strolled leisurely in the park.

RIGHT: She took a leisurely stroll in the park.

2. Avoid using consecutive “-ly” adverbs:

AWKWARD: The job was probably highly carefully done.