Maltalingua School of English Blog

Adjectives and adverbs are two of the busiest words in English, and learners mix them up every single day. The trick is simple once you see it: adjectives describe nouns (a quick learner, a tasty pizza), while adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (she learns quickly, the pizza is incredibly tasty, he speaks very clearly). If you can hold onto that one rule, you have already solved about eighty per cent of the problem. In this lesson we will look at how each one works, how to turn adjectives into adverbs, the verbs that trick everybody, and the mistakes I hear most often in class. Stick around for the mini quiz at the end.

Adjectives sit in two main places in a sentence. The first place is before a noun: a cold drink, an interesting book, a noisy classroom. The adjective comes first, the noun comes second, and the order does not change. The second place is after a linking verb. A linking verb does not show action; it connects the subject to a description. The most common linking verbs are be, seem, look, taste, feel, smell, sound, become and get.

Look at these:

• The soup is hot.
• You seem tired.
• That music sounds lovely.
• The weather is getting colder.

Notice that we never put an adverb after these verbs to describe the subject. We do not say “the soup is hotly” or “you seem tiredly” – it sounds wrong because we are describing the soup or the person, not the action of being.

Most adverbs are built from adjectives, and there are a few simple spelling rules to remember.

1. Add -ly to the adjective.
quick → quickly, slow → slowly, careful → carefully, polite → politely, quiet → quietly.

2. If the adjective ends in -y, change y to i and add -ly.
easy → easily, happy → happily, lazy → lazily, angry → angrily.

3. If the adjective ends in -ic, add -ally.
basic → basically, automatic → automatically, dramatic → dramatically. (One exception: public → publicly.)

4. If the adjective ends in -le, drop the e and add -y.
simple → simply, gentle → gently, terrible → terribly.

5. The irregulars – learn these by heart.

• good → well
• fast → fast (no change)
• hard → hard (no change – and watch out, hardly exists but means “almost not at all”)
• late → late (and again, lately means “recently”, which is different)
• early → early

This is where most students slip up. Linking verbs – be, seem, look, taste, feel, smell, sound, become, get, appear – are followed by an adjective, not an adverb, because they describe the subject.

• She looks tired. (NOT tiredly)
• The cake tastes good. (NOT well)
• That perfume smells amazing. (NOT amazingly)
• I feel nervous about the exam. (NOT nervously)
• His voice sounded strange on the phone. (NOT strangely)

A quick test: ask yourself, “am I describing the person/thing, or am I describing the action?” If you are describing the subject, use the adjective. If you are describing how the action happens, use the adverb. She looks tired describes her. She looked at me angrily describes the way she looked – that one is a real action verb, so the adverb is right.

Where you put the adverb depends on what kind it is.

Adverbs of manner (how something happens) usually come after the verb, or after the object if there is one.

• He drives carefully.
• She speaks English fluently.
• They opened the present excitedly.

Adverbs of frequency (always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely, never) go before the main verb, but after the verb be.

• I always drink coffee in the morning.
• She never eats meat.
• He is usually late.

Adverbs of place and time (here, there, today, yesterday, in Malta) usually go at the end.

• We met at the beach yesterday.
• She studied English in Malta last summer.

A short rule for the end of a sentence: manner, then place, then time. She sang beautifully (manner) at the concert (place) on Friday (time).

Some words look the same whether they describe a noun or a verb. Do not add -ly to these:

• fast – a fast car / he drives fast
• hard – a hard exam / she works hard
• late – a late train / we arrived late
• early – an early start / I got up early
• daily, weekly, monthly, yearly – a daily newspaper / the bus runs daily
• straight – a straight line / go straight on

Be careful with hard and hardly: they are not the same word. I work hard means I make a lot of effort. I hardly work means I almost never work. Same with late and lately – he came late versus I have not seen him lately (= recently).

Here are the errors I see almost every week in class.

• He runs quick. → He runs quickly. (“Run” is an action verb – use an adverb.)
• She sings beautiful. → She sings beautifully.
• I feel badly about it. → I feel bad about it. (“Feel” here is a linking verb – it describes you, not how you do the feeling.)
• The food smells deliciously. → The food smells delicious.
• He drives very dangerous. → He drives very dangerously.
• She speaks English good. → She speaks English well.
• The exam was incredible difficult. → The exam was incredibly difficult. (You are describing the adjective “difficult”, so you need an adverb.)

Notice the pattern: when you are describing the action, reach for the adverb. When you are describing the subject, stay with the adjective.

1. She sings really (beautiful / beautifully).
2. The pasta tastes (amazing / amazingly).
3. He always drives (careful / carefully).
4. I feel (terrible / terribly) about what happened.
5. My grandmother walks very (slow / slowly).
6. That story sounds (strange / strangely).
7. They speak English (good / well).
8. The children were (happy / happily) playing in the garden.
9. You look (tired / tiredly) – go to bed!
10. She finished the test (quick / quickly).

Answers:

1. beautifully (describes sings)
2. amazing (linking verb – describes the pasta)
3. carefully (describes drives)
4. terrible (linking verb – describes you)
5. slowly (describes walks)
6. strange (linking verb – describes the story)
7. well (describes speak; good is the trap)
8. happily (describes playing)
9. tired (linking verb – describes you)
10. quickly (describes finished)

How did you do? If you scored 8 or more, you have got the rule down. If a few caught you out, scroll back up to the linking-verb section – that is almost always where the difficulty is hiding.

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