Adjective or Adverb in English Grammar

What’s the difference between an adjective and an adverb?

Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns, whereas, adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Understanding the difference between adjectives and adverbs in English grammar can be tricky, which is why we have listed the main differences in usage below, along with some tricky adverbs.

Learn the difference between adverbs and adjectives in English grammar with Lingolia’s simple grammar rules and explanations. In the exercises, you can test yourself.

Contents

Jack is currently training for an important marathon.

The training sessions are hard, but he feels absolutely fantastic afterwards.

Jack runs fast, but he isn’t as fast as his trainer yet.

They train weekly and have regular races to check Jack’s progress.

Jack takes his training very seriously because he really wants to improve.

Adjective or adverb?

Adjectives

Adjectives tell us what something or someone is like.

Use adjectives:

Example:
Jack is training for an important marathon.
They have regular races to check Jack’s progress.
  • after the following verbs: be, become, feel, get, grow, keep, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn. After these verbs, adjectives describe the subject.
Example:
The training sessions are hard.
He is not as fast as his trainer yet.
He feels fantastic after training.

Adverbs

Adverbs tell us how something happens (e.g. how often? or to what degree?)

Use adverbs to describe:

Example:
Jack runs fast.
They train weekly.
Example:
He feels absolutely fantastic after training.
  • other adverbs
Example:
Jack takes his training very seriously.

Adjectives and adverbs with the same form

Some words have the same form for the adverb as for the adjective. The most important of these are:

daily, enough, early, far, fast, hourly, little, long, low, monthly, much, straight, weekly, yearly.

Example:
a daily run → They go running daily.

Two adverb forms: change of meaning

Some adjectives can be turned into two adverbs with different meanings. The adverb can either have the same form as the adjective, or it can have -ly added to the end.

The table below lists common examples of adjectives with two adverb forms:

Adjective Adverb (same form as adjective)
 Adverb (-ly form)

hard

Life is hard.

hard

She works hard.

hardly

She hardly ever works.

late

Don’t be late.

late

He is working late today.

lately

Have you seen her lately?

most

Most people like ice-cream.

most

Which kind of ice-cream do you like most?

mostly

It is mostly snowy in winter.

near

He is a near relative.

near

Do you live somewhere near?

nearly

He nearly fell off his chair.

pretty

She has a pretty face.

pretty

She is pretty nervous.

prettily

She sings prettily.

short

He has got short hair.

short

We had to cut our holiday short.

shortly

I will be with you shortly.