Introduction
Adjectives such as beautiful, nice, and red describe nouns. Adverbs such as quickly, badly, or warmly describe verbs. This page will explain the differences between them, and show you how to make adverbs from adjectives.
1. Using adjectives and adverbs
| 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. |
2. Making adverbs from adjectives
Adverbs are usually made from adjectives by adding -LY. These are the rules:
| Adjective ending in... | How to make the adverb | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| y | Change Y to I and add -LY | heavy - heavily happy - happily lazy - lazily |
| [anything else] | Just add -LY | warm - warmly nice - nicely loud - loudly |
There are some important exceptions:
| Adjective | Adverb |
|---|---|
| good | well |
| late | late (“Lately” means recently. It is not the adverb from “late”.) |
| early | early |
| fast | fast |
| hard | hard (“Hardly” means not much. It is not the adverb from “hard”.) |
When you are sure that you understand the lesson, you can continue with the exercise.