23 3.4 Adjectives and Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs modify or add information to other words. Adjectives and adverbs make writing more interesting.

For example, “cat” is a good, solid noun and “ran” is a simple verb, but “The silky spotted cat ran swiftly and silently.” is much more interesting than “The cat ran.” “Silky” and “spotted” are adjectives; “swiftly” and “silently” are adverbs.

Adjectives

Adjectives modify only nouns and pronouns. An adjective answers questions such as which one, what kind, what color, or what shape.

To find an adjective, first find the nouns and pronouns. Then, look around to see if any words add information to those nouns and pronouns.

Here is an example of adjectives modifying nouns:

The head librarian helped me find a history book on famous writers. (“librarian,” “book” and “writers” are all nouns. The adjectives are “head,” which tells us which librarian; “history,” which tells us what kind of book; and “famous,” which tells us what kind of writers.)

Here is an example of an adjective modifying a pronoun:

She is tall. (“tall” is an adjective that describes the size of the pronoun “She.”)

Articles

The words “a,” “an” and “the” are special types of adjectives called articles. They modify nouns and pronouns just like regular adjectives and tell us which one or how many. For example:

The dog barked at a woman on the street. (“The” tells us which dog, “a” tells us how many women, and the second “the” tells us which street.)

Some people are confused about when to use “the” and when to use “a” or “an.” The answer depends on whether we are modifying a specific noun (“the dog” as in “that specific dog”) or a general noun (“a woman” as in “any woman”).

Placement

In English, adjectives usually come before the noun or pronoun (Asian elephant, small table, long journey). But not always. For example:

The organic farm has oranges that are ripe and juicy. (“The” and “organic” are adjectives that modify the noun “farm.” But “ripe” and “juicy” are adjectives too; they modify the noun “oranges,” even though they come after it.)

Changing Jobs

Sometimes nouns or pronouns modify another noun or pronoun, and when they do, they change jobs and turn into adjectives. For example:

dog’s bed, Vicky’s homework, her book, their house, your decision

“dog’s,” “Vicky’s,” “her,” “their,” and “your” answer the question “which one?”  They look like nouns or pronouns, but they are working as adjectives here.

Capitalizing Adjectives

When proper nouns work as adjectives, they are capitalized, just like they’d be capitalized if they were working as nouns. For example:

Oregon → Oregon beer

Jewish → Jewish synagogue

Biden → Biden presidency

Adverbs

Adverbs and adjectives do the same kind of work: they modify other words.  The difference is which types of words they modify.  Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Adverbs answer questions such as how, to what extent, why, when, and where. For example:

• Adverb modifying a verb: Bertrand sings horribly. (“horribly” modifies the verb “sings”; it tells how he sings.)
• Adverb modifying an adjective: Sarah was very nervous about the date. (“very” modifies the adjective “nervous”; it tells how much.)
• Adverb modifying another adverb: Students study really hard before finals. (“hard” is an adverb that modifies the verb “study”; it tells to what extent. But “really” is also an adverb; it modifies the adverb “hard”; it also tells to what extent.)

To find adjectives, we started by finding nouns and pronouns. To find adverbs, we must first find the verbs and adjectives in the sentence.

Placement

Unlike adjectives, which usually appear in front of the noun or pronoun they modify, adverbs can move around. In the following sentences, the adverb “now” modifies the verb “have” by saying when, but it can appear in many locations:

Now I have enough money for a vacation.

I now have enough money for a vacation.

I have enough money now for a vacation.

Adverbs can also appear in the middle of a verb phrase, but that doesn’t mean they are part of the verb. They are still adverbs. For example:

I do not have enough money for a vacation. (“not” is an adverb that modifies the verb “do have.”)

Other adverbs that often interrupt verbs are “also” and “never.”

Caution

Don’t overuse adverbs. Unlike adjectives, which often add interesting information, too many adverbs can actually weaken writing. For example:

It was a very, very cold night. (The word “very” already means “excessively” so don’t say it twice.)

Also, don’t use an adverb to modify a verb if a stronger, one-word verb is better. For example, use “gulp” rather than “drink quickly” or “ravenous” rather than “very hungry.”

Don’t Confuse Adverbs and Adjectives

You may hear someone say, “Anthony is real smart” or “The pizza is real salty.” That is not correct grammar, but it is a common error.

The correct way to say those sentences is “Anthony is really smart” and “The pizza is really salty.” Why? Because the word “real” is an adjective and adjectives can only modify nouns or pronouns.  For example:

It was a real event, something that actually happened to me.

The word “event” is a noun and “real” is the adjective that modifies it. The word “real” cannot modify “smart” or “salty” because they are also adjectives and a word that modifies an adjective has to be an adverb.

People also have difficulty differentiating between “good” and “well” or “bad” and “badly.” If you understand adjectives and adverbs, you will always choose the correct word.  For example:

Cecilia is a good person. (“good” is an adjective that modifies the noun “person.”)

Cecilia did well on a test. (“well” is an adverb that modifies the verb “did.”)

I performed badly on my accounting test. (“badly” is an adverb that modifies the verb “performed.”)

The coming thunderstorm looked bad. (“bad” is an adjective that modifies the noun “thunderstorm.”)

If you know the difference between an adjective and an adverb, you won’t make this mistake. “Good” and “bad” are adjectives; they have to modify nouns.  “Well” and “badly” are adverbs.