Unit 100 · Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives and adverbs 1 (quick/quickly)
Study
You can say:
Our holiday was too short – the time passed very quickly.
Two people were seriously injured in the accident.
Quickly and seriously are adverbs. Many adverbs are adjective + -ly:
| adjective | quick | serious | careful | bad | heavy | terrible |
| adverb | quickly | seriously | carefully | badly | heavily | terribly |
For spelling, see Appendix 6.
Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. Some adjectives end in -ly too, for example:
| friendly | lively | elderly | lonely | lovely |
It was a lovely day.
Adjective or adverb?
Adjectives (quick/careful etc.) tell us about a noun (somebody or something). We use adjectives before nouns:
Sam is a careful driver.
(not a carefully driver)
We didn't go out because of the heavy rain.
Adverbs (quickly/carefully etc.) tell us about a verb (how somebody does something or how something happens):
Sam drove carefully along the narrow road. (not drove careful)
We didn't go out because it was raining heavily. (not raining heavy)
Compare:
| She speaks **perfect** English. | She speaks English **perfectly**. |
| adjective + noun | verb + noun + adverb |
We use adjectives after some verbs, especially be, and also look/feel/sound etc.
Compare:
| Please **be quiet**. | Please speak **quietly**. |
| My exam results were really **bad**. | I did really **badly** in the exam. |
| Why do you always **look so serious**? | Why do you never **take me seriously**? |
| I **feel happy**. | The children were **playing happily**. |
You can also use adverbs before adjectives and other adverbs. For example:
| reasonably cheap | (adverb + adjective) |
| terribly sorry | (adverb + adjective) |
| incredibly quickly | (adverb + adverb) |
It's a reasonably cheap restaurant and the food is extremely good.
I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to push you.
Maria learns languages incredibly quickly.
The exam was surprisingly easy.
You can also use an adverb before a past participle (injured/organised/written etc.):
Two people were seriously injured in the accident. (not serious injured)
The conference was badly organised.
Exercises (4)
Complete each sentence with an adverb. The first letters of the adverb are given.
- 1We didn't go out because it was raining he.example
- 2I had no problem finding a place to live. I found a flat quite ea.
- 3We had to wait a long time, but we didn't complain. We waited pat.
- 4Nobody knew that Simon was coming to see us. He arrived unex.
- 5Mike keeps fit by playing tennis reg.
- 6I don't speak French very well, but I can understand per if people speak sl and cl.
Put in the correct word.
- 1Sam drove along the narrow road. (careful / carefully)example
- 2I think you behaved very . (selfish / selfishly)
- 3The weather changed . (sudden / suddenly)
- 4There was a change in the weather. (sudden / suddenly)
- 5Liz fell and hurt herself really . (bad / badly)
- 6I think I have flu. I feel . (awful / awfully)
- 7Tanya is upset about losing her job. (terrible / terribly)
- 8I could sit in this chair all day. It's very . (comfortable / comfortably)
- 9I explained everything as as I could. (clear / clearly)
- 10Be careful on that ladder. It doesn't look very . (safe / safely)
- 11Have a good trip and I hope you have a journey. (safe / safely)
- 12I'm glad you had a good trip and got home . (safe / safely)
Complete each sentence using a word from the box. Sometimes you need the adjective (careful etc.) and sometimes the adverb (carefully etc.).
- 1Sam doesn't take risks when he's driving. He's always .example
- 2He's late sometimes, but it doesn't happen .
- 3Maria's English is very although she makes quite a lot of mistakes.
- 4I cooked this meal for you, so I hope you like it.
- 5Everything was very quiet. There was silence.
- 6I tried on the shoes and they fitted me .
- 7I'd like to buy a car, but it's impossible for me at the moment.
- 8I'm staying here only a few weeks. I won't be living here .
- 9Do you usually feel before exams?
- 10Dan likes to take risks. He lives .
Choose two words (one from each box) to complete each sentence.
- 1I thought the restaurant would be expensive, but it was .example
- 2Will's mother is in hospital.
- 3This house is so big! It's .
- 4It wasn't a serious accident. The car was only .
- 5Our children are normally very lively, but they're today.
- 6When I returned home after 20 years, everything had .
- 7The movie was . It could have been much shorter.
- 8I'm surprised Amy and Joe have separated. I thought they were .
- 9A lot went wrong during our holiday because it was .