Adjectives and adverbs ·20·

Adjectives
Adjectives describe or modify a noun or pronoun. They provide more
informa-tion about a noun or pronoun, and they can provide additional meaning
for a noun phrase.
Joseph is a famous guitar player.
The elderly couple slept at last.
The list of English adjectives is, of course, quite long. Here are some fre-
quently used examples.
appropriate generous lonely Spanish
beautiful good modern spicy
bitter intelligent poor tall
brown lazy rich tasty
forgetful local scary vintage
An English adjective has only one form, whether the noun or pronoun it
modifies is masculine, feminine, or neuter, or singular or plural. This is true for
predicate adjectives, as well as for adjectives that stand before a noun.
The new professor is quite intelligent.
Intelligent people don’t brag about their talents.
His youngest son is terribly lazy.
A lazy person probably won’t go far in life.
Even the baby giraffe is tall.
That tall girl is the star of her basketball team.

Adverbs
A primary function of adverbs is to modify verbs. Many adverbs are formed
by adding the suffix -ly to adjectives: quick ~ quickly, happy ~ happily, careful
~ carefully, bitter ~ bitterly.
She swims quickly.
He opened the window carefully.
Adverbs can also modify adjectives, thereby augmenting their meaning.
They are extremely sad.
The crowd soon became rather unruly.

115
 Several adverbs express time, for example, tomorrow, today, never, soon, yesterday, yet.
My parents are supposed to arrive tomorrow.
Will you be off the phone soon?
Has Jimmy taken his shower yet?
Some adverbs can be placed in the middle of a sentence, and they generally have a set
posi-tion there. Mid-sentence adverbs stand in front of verbs in the simple present and simple
past tenses. They follow forms of be in simple present and simple past tenses, and they stand
between an auxiliary verb and a main verb.
BEFORE SIMPLE PRESENT AND PAST TENSES
We seldom have dessert after dinner.
My brother often spent his free time playing his guitar.
I rarely talk on the phone for more than a few minutes.
Tom frequently asks an embarrassing question.
FOLLOWING SIMPLE PRESENT AND PAST TENSES OF be
Anna is always there on time.
Bill was sometimes late for an appointment.
Her husband is never around when she needs him.
The children are apparently in very good health.
BETWEEN AN AUXILIARY VERB AND MAIN VERB
John can never face his parents again.
Anna has always gotten there on time.
They have often traveled abroad.
Do you regularly shop in this store?

EXERCISE

20·1
Rewrite each sentence, placing never in the appropriate position.
Then, rewrite the sentence with rarely.

EXAMPLE He spoke with his aunt.

He never spoke with his aunt.
He rarely spoke with his aunt.

We had arranged a surprise party for them.

The soprano from France sang at the Met.

Grandfather was in a good mood.

116 PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners
 My brother could fix his own car.

They will go to Alaska in the winter.

Th e word well can be used as an adverb or as an adjective. As an adverb, well

means “in a good manner” or “capably” and describes how someone does
something. As an adjec-tive, well means “healthy.”

EXERCISE

20·2
Underline the adjective(s) in each sentence.

This book is hard to read.

This is the best article I have ever read.
She was beautiful and happy at her wedding.
If we are fast, we will find good seats for the movie.
The humid breezes blew across the plain.
They were beaming and radiant at their anniversary.

Now, underline the adverb in each sentence.

We hurriedly ran out of the burning building.

I rarely take any breaks in the morning.
Loudly, the teenagers moved through the school corridors.
She finally went to the grocery store after running out of toilet paper.
He often read the Bible in the morning.
The library receives a copy of the newspaper biweekly.
Our manager spoke to us seriously about behavioral issues.
The children ended by playing indoors.
Catherine regularly brings coffee to her co-workers.
I was still stuck in traffic.
Perhaps we will fly to Atlanta next month.

UNIT 20 Adjectives and adverbs 117

 EXERCISE

20·3
Underline the word that correctly completes each sentence.

Joseph is a meticulous meticulously writer. He writes meticulous meticulously.

Catherine asked me an easy easily question. I was unable to answer her
question, but my friend Anjali answered it easy easily.
Pedro speaks loud loudly. He has a loud loudly voice.
Because the movie had already started, I entered the movie theater quiet quietly.
Sophie secretive secretly liked the boy.
Ali speaks Arabic very good well. He has very good well pronunciation.

Some adverbs can modify not only verbs and adjectives, but other adverbs as well. The
func-tion of this small group of adverbs is to impart a quality or degree to the meaning of the
adverb. A short list of these adverbs follows.
bit
little
exceptionally
extremely
quite rather
somewhat
too
very
Consider the difference in meaning in the following pairs of sentences.
They were working fast.
They were working exceptionally fast.
The poor man wept bitterly.
The poor man wept quite bitterly.
She spoke rapidly.
She spoke too rapidly.
They approached the animal cautiously.
They approached the animal very cautiously.

EXERCISE

20·4
In each sentence, underline every adjective and adverb, marking each one adj (adjective)
or adv (adverb).

Sue opened the clean car door quite rapidly.

Moroccan jewelers carved beautiful pendants from ebony.
The old woman cooks the soup very carefully.

118 PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners
A busy person usually has rather short conversations on the phone.
The children had a very good time at the amusement park yesterday.

EXERCISE

20·5
Rewrite each sentence, using the adverb in parentheses correctly in the sentence.

Catherine has finished writing the essay due tomorrow. (already)

Helen is at Jason’s house. (seldom)

Does he go to her house? (always)

He goes hiking to get away from it all and relax. (often)

She should tell him the truth. (always)

Eric has seen the ocean. (never)

Steven produces his electronic music on his laptop. (often)

Anna is at the club on Tuesday nights. (often)

Vince goes to the movies, because he prefers staying home. (rarely)

I don’t ask for a girl’s number if I don’t know her. (generally)

I have eaten an Asian pear. (never)