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Lecture 2: Adjectives and Adverbs
If nouns and verbs form the basic foundation of your sentence, adjectives and adverbs are
the elements that make your sentence interesting. Let’s start with adjectives.
Adjectives
You probably already know that adjectives describe or give more information about nouns. You should also know that in English when the adjective and the noun appear together,
the adjective usually comes BEFORE the noun. The paragraphs below describe the daily routine of a community college student. One paragraph is written without adjectives, and one is written with adjectives. Which one do you find more interesting to read?
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Without Adjectives |
With Adjectives | |
A Day in the Life of a Community College Student
I both work and study full-time. My clock beeps in the morning at 5:30 AM, and I drag myself to the bathroom to take a shower. After eating breakfast, I go to my job at the office of an organization. I work for hours, eat dinner on the street, and then take a bus to the college where I’m studying design. After my classes, I go to the library, where I do my homework and study for tests. Then I go home and crawl into my bed, but not before setting my clock again for 5:30 AM! |
A Day in the Life of a Community College Student
I both work and study full-time.
My daily schedule is tight. My digital clock beeps in the early morning at 5:30 AM, and I
go to the bathroom to take a very hot shower. After eating a healthy breakfast, I go to my full-time job at the local office of a national legal organization. I work for eight long hours, eat a quick dinner on the street, and then take a public bus to the college where I’m studying graphic design. After my classes, I go to the library, where I do my endless homework and study for upcoming tests. Then I go home and crawl into my warm bed, but not before setting my clock again for 5:30 AM! |
If you’re like me, you enjoyed reading the paragraph with adjectives because it made the reading experience more detailed and personal. Now let’s look use the same paragraph to think about some common places to find adjectives:
- Adjectives go before nouns: This is the most common
place to find an adjective, and our paragraph about the community college
student’s routine is full of examples of this pattern. Here are just a few:
digital clock quick dinner
full-time job upcoming tests
warm bed
- After the verb "be": Adjectives that appear
after the verb "be" describe the noun that comes before the verb "be". For example, in the sentence from our paragraph …
My daily schedule is tight.
… the adjective tight follows the verb is. This adjective describes the noun that comes before is: schedule.
- After the adverb "very": We often use the adverb very to intensify an adjective. In this case, very comes before the adjective. Here is an example from our paragraph:
 I
go to the bathroom to take a very hot shower.
ADVERBS
Adverbs drive a lot of ESL students crazy, but they truly make your writing richer and more interesting to read. Let’s remember that adverbs can modify or describe three things:
1. verbs
2. adjectives
3. other adverbs
Many students try to identify adverbs according to their appearance because they often end in–ly, for example,
softly, quickly, unfortunately, particularly, simply and really.
Although helpful, this strategy will not serve you 100% of the time because many adverbs do not end in
–ly.
Adverbs that do NOT follow this pattern include often, quite, late, well and almost. Where to put an adverb in the sentence is a complicated question, however, with no easy answer. The answer is that an adverb
often appears near the word that it modifies. For example:
- Adverb modifying a verb:
- Americans typically shake hands with another person upon meeting him or her for the first time.
- Adverb modifying an adjective:
- Invading the personal space of an American by standing too close will make him or her very
uncomfortable.
- Adverb modifying another adverb:
- Americans move quite quickly compared to some other cultures.
The more realistic answer is that adverbs sometimes appear in places where you
do not expect them, so if you suspect that a word is an adverb, just ask yourself, “What is this word modifying or describing?” If the answer is a verb,
an adjective or an adverb, then that word is probably an adverb.
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