Adjectives

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Adjectives are used to describe or modify nouns. Therefore, adjectives can give a little/big different meaning to a noun. Let’s see the following examples ( The underlined words are adjectives.) :

beautiful girls
lazy students
empty houses
aggravated situations
normal life
difficult problems
an abandoned house
a popular singer
hot issues
bad weather

From the ten examples above, we can see that adjectives describe or modify nouns.

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Contents hide

1. Adjectives Samples in Sentences

2. Adjectives Versus Adverbs

2.1. Adjectives

2.2. Adjective Ending In ly

2.3. Adverbs

2.4. Irregular Adverbs

2.5. The Meaning of Hardly and Lately

2.6. Adverbs Before Past Participles.

3. Adjective Adverb Exercises

Adjectives Samples in Sentences

See the following adjectives in the sentences below. The adjectives are underlined.

The boy has a voracious appetite.
The newly weds look happy.
Don’t be sad when you are fired.
Just look for a new job.
Start writing a good application letter.
He has just bought an expensive car.
Who’s that beautiful tall girl?
She’s made him crazy.
His father was mad at him because he didn’t go to school yesterday.
How can we deal with these unusual viruses?

Adjectives Versus Adverbs

Talking about the difference between adjectives and adverbs, they have different functions in sentences. Adjectives are words that describe nouns or pronouns. Adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Adverbs are usually words that answer questions with how.

An adjective tell us more about a noun . We use adjectives before nouns and after verbs be (is, am, are, was, were, been ), get, become, look, seem, smell, taste, feel. Let’s see the following examples.

Ringo is a quiet boy. ( before noun )
Be careful, please! ( after be )
We didn’t go out because of the heavy rain. ( before noun )
I was happy that she was home last night. ( after be )
The food smells good. ( after smell )
The teacher looks angry because of that naughty boy. ( after looks, before noun ).

Adjective Ending In ly

Some adjectives end in –ly . Let’s see the following example.

friendly
lively
elderly
lonely
silly
lovely
happy
ready

Adverbs

Most adverbs tell us about a verb, an adjective or another adverbs. Let’s see the following examples.

Come quickly ! ( It tells us about the verb come ).
She is seriously ill. ( It tells us about the adjective ill).
Jane learns Spanish incredibly quickly. ( It tells us about another adverb quickly).

Most adverbs are made from an adjective + ly. Let’s see the following examples :

Adjective	Adverb
quick serious careful quiet heavy bad terrible probable reasonable incredible	quickly seriously carefully quietly heavily badly terribly probably reasonably incredibly

Note : If an adjective ends in -le ( probable, terrible etc. ), we leave out e and add ly for the adverb.

Irregular Adverbs

Some adverbs are not made from adjective + ly. Let’s see the following examples.

Adjective	Adverb
good fast late hard	well fast late hard

Examples in sentences :

She is a good writer. She can write well.
He is a fast learner. He can learn anything fast.

The Meaning of Hardly and Lately

Hardly means almost not. Let’s see the following examples.

My grandfather is very old. He can hardly walk.
We’ve hardly got anything to eat.

Hardly ever means almost never. Let’s see the following examples.

I hardly ever go out at night.

Lately means recently. Let’s see the following examples.

I have never seen your girlfriend lately.

Adverbs Before Past Participles.

We can use an adverb before a past participle (injured, organized, damaged etc. ). Let’s see the following examples.

The meeting was very badly organized.
The car was seriously damaged in the accident.
The house was totally destroyed in the explosion.

Adjective Adverb Exercises

Exercise I

In this exercise you have to choose the right word in the bracket.

He is a (careful, carefully) driver.
She can speak English ( fluent, fluently).
Lionel is very ( good, well ) at playing football.
Ronaldo can play football very ( good, well ).
The car can run ( extreme, extremely ) fast.
I’m very (good, well), thank you.
He often gets the first rank in his class because he always studies (hard, hardly).
Don’t be (late, lately) to school. Hurry up.
Jim can do the test (easy, easily).
The questions look (easy, easily) but they are (difficult, difficultly) to answer.

Exercise II

Complete the sentences with the correct adjective in the box.

disappointed difficult happy hard hardly lately

lazily lonely long loudly seriously

How ….. is the Mississippi river? It’s around 4 thousand kilometers I guess.
Everybody looked …….. They all sang songs together during the trip.
The girl was ……. because her boyfriend broke his promise.
It’s the most …… problem we’ve had so far. However, I’m sure we’ll be able to solve it if we work together.
Tonight I feel so ….. There’s nobody around me. I really want to cry.
Don’t talk too ….. Our mother is sleeping.
Have you heard from him …..?
Our grandma is ….. ill. She can’t even get up by herself.
If you work ….., you will get rich sooner than you think.
She ….. goes out alone. She usually goes out with her elder brother.