
An adverb is another part of speech we were all taught in school. Just as we have explained the others like noun, pronouns, preposition, we are going to talk about adverb and adjective. It is very easy just like the others. However, you will really need to understand the others before you can flow in this one. So if you are reading this now, I trust you have visited my other posts and now have full understanding of what the other parts of speech are all about. If that is the case then a big welcome here.
Well before we begin, we will first ask ourselves…
WHAT IS AN ADVERB?
An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective and another adverb. An adverb tells us how, when, where and how often an action takes place
HOW AN ADVERB MODIFIES A VERB
An Adverb Modifies a Verb HOW
We all know that a verb is an action word and it could be an action of how, when, frequency and where
Adverb of Frequency (How often)
Example:
- It rained heavily
The verb in this sentence is ‘rained’ while the adverb ‘heavily’ shows HOW it rained
- John ran fast
The verb in this sentence is ‘ran’ while the adverb ‘fast’ show John ran
- Peter ate quickly
The verb in this sentence is ‘ate’ while the adverb ‘quickly’ shows HOW Peter ate
- Cynthia cried bitterly
The verb in this sentence is ‘cried’ while the adverb ‘bitterly’ shows HOW Cynthia cried
- He beat her mercilessly
The verb in this sentence is ‘beat’ while the adverb ‘mercilessly’ shows HOW he beat her
An Adverb Modifies A Verb WHEN
- She came in today
The verb in this sentence is ‘came’ while the adverb ‘today’ shows WHEN she came in
- My husband takes me out every Saturday
The verb in this sentence is ‘takes’ while the adverb ‘Saturday’ show WHEN her husband takes her out
- They go to church every Sunday
The verb in this sentence is ‘go’ while the adverb ‘Sunday’ shows WHEN they go to church
- I attend my lessons weekly
The verb in this sentence is ‘attend’ while the adverb ‘weekly’ show WHEN I attend my lessons
- She was born on October
The verb in this sentence is ‘born’ while the adverb ‘October’ show WHEN she was born
An Adverb Modifies the Verb Frequency (How Often)
- She never comes in on time
- You can always reach out to me
- Sometimes I leave the light on in the night
- She rarely comes to my house
- I usually see her mother
HOW AN ADVERB MODIFIES AN ADJECTIVE
Example:
- Adverb
- Adjective
- She is easilyexcited over nothing
- I am verypleased to meet you
- He cried sobitterly when he lost the game
- She put on a brightcolour
- She wore a dullcolour dress to the party
HOW AN ADVERB MODIFIES ANOTHER ADVERB
- His wife always talk calmly
- The boy nevereasily takes injection
- She sometimescarefully cross the road
- The nurses so gently took her baby away from her
- He rarely quietly calls his wife
Here are some the adverbs. You can familiarize yourselves with them
Where | How | Frequency | When |
Away | Quietly | Sometimes | Today |
Above | Closely | Never | Yesterday |
Below | Badly | Occasionally | Last month |
Here | Bitterly | Twice | Last night |
There | Easily | Rarely | Monday |
Behind | Quickly | Usually | Tomorrow |
Let’s practice this!
Find the adverbs
- The yellow fan always works better than the blue fan
- Tomorrow my father went to work early in the morning
- They ran so fast that their legs really hurt
- The fish swarm very fast in the salty water
- They usually play outside, now, they are running here inside
Answers
- The yellow fan always works better than the blue fan
- Yesterday, my father went to work early in the morning
- They ran sohard that their legs really hurt
- The fish swarm veryfast in the salty water
- They usually play outside, now, they are running hereinside
Note: adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
Let’s try another!
Underline the adverb in the following sentence
- The teacher was careful, she called the student immediately
- The big table falls occasionally
- Your bag has many big holes
- She bought a brand new book
- She usually wears a bright coloured dress
Answer
- The teacher was careful, she called the student immediately
- The big table falls occasionally
- Your bag has many big pictures
- She bought a brand new book immediately
- She usually wears a bright coloured dress
AN ADJECTIVE
What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word that describes or gives information about something. They are big, cold, small, happy, sad, red etc.
An adjective can also be said to generally describe a noun or a pronoun. And what is a noun?
A noun is a name of a person, place, animal or things
Example
The table- a noun
To describe the table- we use an adjective (yellow)
The yellow table
Adjective + noun
The fat girl
The small fan
The kind mother-in-law
The wicked step mother
The blue sky
When using the verb to be to describe a noun
Example
- Verb to be
- Adjective
- The boy issad
- The girl ishappy
- The chair isred
- The water iscold
- Her mother iskind
There Are Different Types of Adjective
Adjective of Quantity
These are words that describe the quantity of a noun or a pronoun
Example:
- My father gave me enough money for the week
- Get me some water to drink
- I just want a little
- Her sister has few clothes to wear for the holiday
- I couldn’t eat much of the food
Adjective of Quality
These are words that describe the quality of a noun or pronoun
Example:
- I have a kind mother-in-law
- She has a nice attitude
- She is gentle
- She has a beautiful daughter
- Her father has a strong car
- Aww! your baby is awesome
Adjective of Number
These are words that tell us or describe the exact number of noun
Example:
- She just gave me an orange
- Her father has three cars parked in their house
- I need a phone
- Her mother visited two charity homes
- I just brought ten bags with me for the sale
Possessive Adjective
These are words that show ownership of something
- I love my teddy
- He gave me his pen
- My mother brought her dress
- The man gave us their car
- The teacher marked our books
Interrogative Adjective
These are words used with nouns to ask questions
Example:
- Whose books do you have?
- Who called you?
- What did you do today?
- Whom did you tell?
- Which book is yours?
Demonstrative Adjective These are words that points out a noun
Example:
- That book is mine
- This chair is mine
- Those are her tables
- These are pens
- This pencil is for him
There Are Degrees of Adjectives
Adjectives of Positive Degree
These are words used to describe a single thing or person
Example:
- My sister a fat girl
- Jane is a tall girl
- The ball is big
- My orange is small
Superlative Degree of Adjective
These are used to compare more than two persons or things of the same category. It talks about the highest degree of comparison
Example:
- Peter is the tallest of the three
- John is the fastest of the three boys
- Kate is the biggest of the three children
- When you come, you will see that my house is the neatest in the community
- She is the smartest in her class
Comparative Degree of Adjectives
These are used to compare between people or things of different category
Example:
- Peter is a smart boy
John is smarter than Peter
Kate is the smartest of them all
- Cynthia’s house is big
David’s house is bigger than Cynthia
Harry’s house is the biggest of the three
Note: “For most adjectives, the comparative degree is formed by adding –er and the superlative degree is formed by adding –est to the positive form”
Wow…I trust it was an interesting class. Right?
Okay! Let’s practice
Now, identify the adverb and the adjective in the following sentence
- The nurse was smart, she called the doctor immediately
- The big fan usually have problem
- Your food has small pieces of meat
- She occasionally comes to our house with her fat sister
- He always comes in late at night
Answers
- Adjective
- Adverb
- The nurse was smart, she called the doctor immediately
- The big fan usually have problem
- Your food has smallpieces of meat
- She occasionally comes to our house with her fat sister
- He always comes in late at night
- He suddenly developed a high fever
- Please quickly pass me that oldblue bag
- She ate her food hurriedly to catch up with the early morning flight
- The road was sobusy
- I was soexcited that I couldn’t finish my delicious food
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