Adjective or adverb?

A Introduction

Vicky: I like that song that Natasha sang.

Rachel: Yes, it's a nice song. And she sang it nicely, too.

An adjective (nice) describes a noun (song).

The man had a quiet voice. Claire wears expensive clothes. The runners made a slow start.

An adverb (nicely) describes a verb (sang).

The man spoke quietly. Claire dresses expensively. They started the race slowly.

We do NOT say She sang it nice.

We can use adverbs in other ways. An adverb like really or very can be combined with an adjective (hot) o another adverb (carefully). It was really hot in the sun. Andrew checked his work very carefully.

An adverb like fortunately or perhaps says something about the whole situation.

Fortunately nothing was stolen. Perhaps Sarah is working late.

B The ly ending

We form many adverbs from an adjective + ly. For example politely, quickly, safely.

But there are some special spelling rules.

1 We do not leave out e, e.g. nice —> nicely Exceptions are true —> truly, whole —> wholly.

2 y -> ily after a consonant, e.g. easy —> easily lucky —> luckily angrily, happily, heavily, etc.

3 le -> ly, e.g. possible —> possibly comfortably, probably, reasonably, sensibly, terribly, etc.

4 ic -> ically, e.g. dramatic —> dramatically automatically, scientifically, etc. (Exception: publicly)

C Looked nice and looked carefully

Compare these two structures.

LINKING VERB + ADJECTIVE ACTION VERB + ADVERB

Tom was hungry. Paul ate hungrily.

The children seemed happy. The children played happily.

My soup has got cold. The man stared coldly at us.

An adjective can come after a linking verb such as be. We use an adverb when the verb means that something happens.

Some verbs like look, taste and appear can be either linking verbs or action verbs.

LINKING VERB + ADJECTIVE ACTION VERB + ADVERB

Mike looked angry. He looked carefully at the signature.

The medicine tasted awful. Emma tasted the drink nervously.

The man appeared (to be) drunk. A waiter appeared suddenly.

D Friendly, likely, etc

The ending ly is the normal adverb ending. But a few adjectives also end in ly.

Melanie was very friendly. It was a lively party. We had a lovely time.

Some more examples are: elderly, likely, lonely, silly, ugly

The words are adjectives, not adverbs (NOT She spoke to us friendly). And we cannot add ly. There is no such word as friendlily. But we can say in a friendly way/manner.

She spoke to us in a friendly way. If we need to use an adverb, we often choose another word of similar meaning.

It was lovely. Everything went beautifully.

E Hard, fast, etc

Compare these sentences.

ADJECTIVE ADVERB

We did some hard work. We worked hard.

I came on the fast train. The train went quite fast.

We can use these words both as adjectives and as adverbs:

deep, early, fast, hard, high, late, long, low, near, right, straight, wrong (For hardly, nearly, etc, see C.)

In informal English, the adjectives cheap, loud, quick and slow can be adverbs.

ADJECTIVE ADVERB

They sell cheap clothes in the market. They sell things cheap/cheaply there.

Back already! That was quick. Come as quick/quickly as you can.

F Hard, hardly, near, nearly, etc

There are some pairs of adverbs like hard and hardly which have different meanings.

Here are some examples.

I tried hard, but I didn't succeed. I've got hardly any money left. (hardly any = very little, almost none)

Luckily I found a phone box quite near. I nearly fell asleep in the meeting. (nearly = almost)

Rachel arrived late, as usual. I've been very busy lately. (lately = in the last few days/weeks)

The plane flew high above the clouds. The material is highly radioactive. (highly = very)

We got into the concert free. (free = without paying) The animals are allowed to wander freely. (freely = uncontrolled)

G Good and well

Good is an adjective, and well is its adverb. The opposites are bad and badly.

ADJECTIVE ADVERB

Natasha is a good violinist. She plays the violin very well.

Our test results were good. We all did well in the test.

I had a bad night. I slept badly last night.

Well can also be an adjective meaning 'in good health', the opposite of ill.

My mother was very ill, but she's quite well again now.

How are you? ~ Very well, thank you.