Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives and Adverbs

are two of the four main word classes in English, along with nouns and verbs.

Adjectives

Adjectives describe the qualities of people and things.

An adjective is a word or set of words that modifies (i.e., describes) a noun or pronoun.

Words like poor, blue and interesting are adjectives.

may come before the word they modify:

That is a cute puppy.

She likes a high school senior.

may also follow the word they modify:

That puppy looks cute.

The technology is state-of-the-art.

Adverbs

indicate the time, place, manner, degree or frequency of an event or action.

Adverbs have many different functions and can have different positions in a clause.

An adverb is a word or set of words that modifies verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

Adverbs answer how, when, where, why, or to what extent, how often or how much

For example: daily, completely

Examples

He speaks slowly (tells how)

He speaks very slowly (the adverb very tells how slowly)

She arrived today (tells when)

She will arrive in an hour (this adverb phrase tells when)

Let's go outside (tells where)

We looked in the basement (this adverb phrase tells where)

Bernie left to avoid trouble (this adverb phrase tells why)

Jorge works out strenuously (tells to what extent)

Jorge works out whenever possible (this adverb phrase tells to what extent)