how to use adjectives and adverbs

'Working hard or hardly working?'

adverbs

Adverbs are used to give us more information about a verb. They give us information on how something happens or how something is done. For example:

'She cried badly when her dog died'.

'He easily climbed the wall'.

Many English adverbs end in –ly. They are often made by adding –ly to the end of an adjective: quick + ly = quickly.

Be careful!

Sometimes adjectives end in –ly. For example:

friendly, lonely and lovely.

adjectives

Adjectives are used to tell us about nouns. They tell us about people and things.

'That was a bad film'.

'My exam was easy'.

adverb + adjective

Adverbs can be used with adjectives. Take a look at the following examples:

adverb+adjective

extremely expensive

incredibly surprised 

reasonably good

Now read the following sentences and decide if an adverb or adjective is needed:

• Relax. He's a ___ driver.
  
  safely
  safe
  
  
• Your brother is so ___.
  
  kind
  kindly
  
  
• I always work ___ during the week.
  
  hard
  hardly
  
  
• You ___ touched your lunch.
  
  hard
  hardly
  
  
• At the party everyone was ___ dressed.
  
  beautifully
  beautiful
  
  
• By the time we got home I was ___ tired.
  
  terribly
  terrible
  
  
• Han did ___ on his test.
  
  badly
  bad
  
  
• I baked this cake ___ for you.
  
  specially
  special
  
  
• They have been ___ married for years.
  
  happy
  happily
  
  
• It's natural to feel ___ before a job interview.
  
  nervous
  nervously