This document discusses adjectives and adverbs. It explains that adjectives are either descriptive or limiting, and describe nouns. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, and many are formed by adding "-ly" to adjectives. Some words like "so" and "very" are also adverbs. Adverbs answer questions like "how." Linking verbs require adjectives, not adverbs, to modify the subject complement. The document provides examples and exercises to distinguish between adjective and adverb forms.

1. Adjectives and Adverbs

2. Adjectives
• Adjectives fall into two categories:
descriptive and limiting.
• Descriptive adjectives are those which
describe the color, size, or quality of a
person or thing (noun or pronoun)
• Limiting adjectives place restrictions on
the words they modify (quantity, distance,
possession, etc.)

3. DESCRIPTIVE LIMITING
Beautiful
Large
Red
Interesting
Important
Colorful
Cardinal number (one, two)
Ordinal number (first, second)
Possessives (my, your , his)
Demonstratives (this, that,
these, those)
Quantity (few, many, much)
Articles (a, an, the)

4. Adverbs
• Adverbs modify verbs (except linking verbs),
adjectives, or other adverbs. Many descriptive
adjectives can be changed to adverb by adding
–ly to the adjectives base.
ADJECTIVES ADVERBS
Bright
Brightly
Careful
Carefully
Quiet
Quietly

5. The following words are also adverbs: so, very,
almost, soon, often, fast, well, there, too.
An adverb answers the question: How…?
• Ex: John is reading carefully.
(How is John reading?)
• Rita drank too much coffee.
(How much coffee did she drink?)
• I don’t play tennis very well.
(How well do I play?)
• He was driving fast.
(How was he driving?)
• She reviewed her notes carefully.
(How did she review her notes?)

6. Circle the correct form in parentheses.
1. Rita plays the violin (good/well).
2. That is an (intense/intensely) novel.
3. The sun is shining (bright/brightly).
4. The girls speak (fluent/fluently) French.
5. The boys speak Spanish (fluent/fluently).
6. The table has a (smooth/smoothly) surface.
7. We must figure our income tax returns
(accurate/accurately).
8. We don’t like to drink (bitter/bitterly) tea.
9. The plane will arrive (soon/soonly).
10. He had an accident because he was driving
too (fast/fastly).

7. Adjectives with linking (copulative) verb
A special category of verbs connects or links
the subject with the subject complement
(predicate adjectives). Unlike most verbs,
these do not show action. They must be
modified by adjectives, not adverbs.
Ex: Be, become, remain, stay, appear,
seem, sound, feel, look, smell, taste.
• Mary feels bad about her test grade.
• Children become tired quite easily.

8. Be, become, and remain can be followed
by noun phrases as well as adjectives.
• They remained sad even though I tried to
Adj
cheer them up
• Dough remained chairman of the board
Noun
the opposition.
• Ted will be prom king this year.
Noun phrase

9. Circle the correct form in parentheses.
1. Your cold sounds (terrible/terribly).
2. The pianist plays very (good/well).
3. The food in the restaurant always tastes (good/well).
4. The campers remained (calm/calmly) despite the
thunderstorm.
5. They became (sick/sickly) after eating contaminated
food.
6. Professor Calandra looked (quick/quickly) at the
students’ sketches.
7. Paco was working (diligent/diligently) on the project.
8. Paul protested (vehement/vehemently) about the new
proposals.
9. Our neighbors appeared (relaxed/relaxedly) after their
vacation.
10. The music sounded too (noisy/noisily) to be classical.

10. Circle the correct form in parentheses.
1. Your cold sounds (terrible/terribly).
2. The pianist plays very (good/well).
3. The food in the restaurant always tastes (good/well).
4. The campers remained (calm/calmly) despite the
thunderstorm.
5. They became (sick/sickly) after eating contaminated
food.
6. Professor Calandra looked (quick/quickly) at the
students’ sketches.
7. Paco was working (diligent/diligently) on the project.
8. Paul protested (vehement/vehemently) about the new
proposals.
9. Our neighbors appeared (relaxed/relaxedly) after their
vacation.
10. The music sounded too (noisy/noisily) to be classical.