How to use adjectives and adverbs

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.

Order of adjectives

Sometimes we use more than one adjective in front of a noun:

He was a nice intelligent young man.
She had a small round black wooden box.

Opinion adjectives:

Some adjectives give a general opinion. We can use these adjectives to describe almost any noun:

good	bad	lovely	strange
beautiful	nice	brilliant	excellent
awful	important	wonderful	nasty

Some adjectives give a specific opinion. We only use these adjectives to describe particular kinds of noun:

Food: tasty; delicious
Furniture, buildings: comfortable; uncomfortable
People, animals: clever; intelligent; friendly

We usually put a general opinion in front of a specific opinion:

Nice tasty soup.
A nasty uncomfortable armchair
A lovely intelligent animal

Usually we put an adjective that gives an opinion in front of an adjective that is descriptive:

a nice red dress; a silly old man; those horrible yellow curtains

We often have two adjectives in front of a noun:

a handsome young man; a big black car; that horrible big dog

Sometimes we have three adjectives, but this is unusual:

a nice handsome young man;
a big black American car;
that horrible big fierce dog

It is very unusual to have more than three adjectives.

Adjectives usually come in this order:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
General opinion	Specific opinion	Size	Shape	Age	Colour	Nationality	Material

We use some adjectives only after a link verb:

afraid	alive	alone	asleep
content	glad	ill	ready
sorry	sure	unable	well

Some of the commonest -ed adjectives are normally used only after a link verb:

annoyed;  finished;  bored; pleased; thrilled

We say:

Our teacher was ill.
My uncle was very glad when he heard the news.
The policeman seemed to be very annoyed

but we do not say:

We had an ill teacher.
When he heard the news he was a very glad uncle
He seemed to be a very annoyed policeman

A few adjectives are used only in front of a noun:

north south east west

northern southern eastern western

countless occasional lone

eventful indoor outdoor

We say:

He lives in the eastern district.
There were countless problems with the new machinery.

but we do not say:

The district he lives in is eastern
The problems with the new machinery were countless.