Touchstone Unit 1: Adjectives and Adverbs GRAMMAR NOTES


An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing or identifying words.

An adjective usually comes before the noun or the pronoun which it modifies. ("a nice cat" "a happy couple")

Ex: Jack built a beautiful, small cottage
(adjective + noun)
An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause.
An adverb describes an action (verb) and answers questions such as "how," "when," "where," "how much". Many adverbs can be identified by their characteristic "ly" suffix (coldly, plainly, happily, etc.)

Ex: Jack built his cottage carefully.
(verb (+ noun) + adverb)

Adjective / Adverb / Example /
beautiful / Ann is beautiful.
beautifully / Ann sings beautifully.
warm / The room is warm.
warmly / Joe smiles warmly.
slow / The car is slow.
slowly / Ann drives slowly.

1) We can turn adjectives into adverbs by adding -ly onto the end of a word.
regular (adjective) becomes regularly (adverb)
Ex: He is a regular driver to town. → He drove the car regularly to town.
/
nervous (adjective) becomes nervously (adverb)
Ex: He gave a nervous answer. → He answered nervously.
passionate (adjective) becomes passionately (adverb)
Ex: They were passionate in their beliefs. → They believed passionately.

SPELLING

Remember: words ending in -y change to -ily and words ending in -le change to -ly.

· happy → happily

· angry → angrily

· moody → moodily

When we turn adjectives ending in –le into adverbs ending in –ly, notice how the spelling changes. We take off the –e and replace it with -y:

· horrible → horribly

· terrible → terribly

· simple → simply

**For other adjectives ending in –e, keep the –e and add –ly

·  safe = safely

2) Sometimes adverbs are not derived from adjective and the equivalent adverb does not end in -ly.
good (adjective) becomes well (adverb) – not goodly
Ex: Terry is a good cook. → Terry cooks well.

Some adverbs don’t end in –ly. These include adverbs of frequency. These adverbs tell us how often something is done or happens and include adverbs such as: sometimes, never, often, and always. Unlike adverbs ending in –ly (where the adverb usually comes after the main verb), adverbs of frequency usually come before the main verb, except the main verb “to be”:

·  He always plays cricket on Sunday.

·  Vegetarians never eat meat.

·  It’s sometimes alright to ask him.

** Unlike an adjective, an adverb can be found in various places within the sentence. Occasionally, adverbs of frequency …

… can come at the end of a sentence Ex: I see them often.

… or at the beginning of a sentence Ex: Sometimes I go and watch cricket.

3) There are some words that are both adjectives and adverbs. They stay the same.
Some common ones are: hard, fast, early and late.

·  He is a hard person to please. → Pleasing him is hard.

·  He had a late return that night. → He returned late that night.

·  It was a fast car. → The car was travelling fast.

·  It was early when he set off. → He set off early.

4) There are some adjectives that end in –ly. Here are some common examples:

4

·  a daily paper

·  an early night

·  an elderly woman

·  a friendly face

·  a likely story

·  a lovely day

4

This can become confusing, but remember that an adjective describes a noun and always goes before the noun. All the words above describe a noun, so they are adjectives.
5) Sometimes adjectives that become adverbs are the same, and often the adverbs have two forms with different meanings.
Some common ones are: hard/hardly, late/lately and cool/coolly

HARD / HARDLY

Ex: It was a hard (adj) exam. (It was a difficult exam and require maximum effort)

Ex: They were hard (adv) at work. (They worked with great effort)

Here the meaning of the adjective and the adverb are very similar. However if we look at the adverb form that ends in -ly the meaning is very different.

·  He hardly put any effort into it (He put very little effort into it)

Hardly is negative in meaning. Notice how these two examples have an opposite meaning, even though both words (hard/hardly) look almost the same.

LATE / LATELY

Ex: Manchester United scored a late goal. (after the expected time)
Ex: He’s often late to class. (he doesn’t get to class on time).
Ex: Lately, she has been working mornings only. (recently, in the very near past).
Late means not on time. It refers to a time after that which something should have arrived or occurred. But lately refers to an action or event that has happened recently.

COOL / COOLLY
Ex: It was a cool breeze. (of a cool temperature)
Ex: The concert was cool. (good, enjoyable)
Ex: He coolly replied to the question (He replied in a calm manner)
When we say cool, we are either referring to temperature or giving our opinion. But, coolly refers to a person’s manner. Reacting coolly, is the same as reacting calmly.
6) We will often use adverbs with adjectives together and adverbs with adverbs:

·  Incredibly effective (adverb + adjective) Ex: It was an incredibly effective way of doing it.

·  Faintly interesting (adverb + adjective) Ex: The talk was faintly interesting.

·  Unbelievably slowly (adverb + adverb) Ex: He moved unbelievably slowly up the stairs.

·  Extremely quietly (adverb + adverb) Ex: He spoke extremely quietly to the little girl.

Practice:

1. beautiful + -ly = ______

2. strange + -ly = ______

3. sad + -ly = ______

4. loud + -ly = ______

5. lucky + -ly = ______

6. graceful + -ly = ______

7. proud + -ly = ______

8. handsome + -ly = ______

9. careful + -ly = ______

10. courageous + -ly = ______

4