Adjectives describe people and things: a quick lunch, a careful driver. Adverbs describe actions: eat quickly, drive carefully. Choosing the right one makes your English sound clear and correct.
The pattern
She's a careful driver.
She drives carefully.
The soup smells great.
01Adjective or adverb?
An adjective goes before a noun or after be: a slow bus, the bus is slow. An adverb usually tells us how someone does something, so it goes with a verb: the bus moves slowly.
Adverbs can also make adjectives stronger or weaker: really cheap, extremely tired, pretty good.
- Our neighbors are very quiet.
- They always talk quietly.
- The test was really easy.
02How to make -ly adverbs
Most adverbs are adjective + -ly. Watch the spelling changes in the table. Some words already end in -ly but are adjectives: friendly, lovely, lonely. They have no adverb form, so we say in a friendly way.
| Adjective | Rule | Adverb |
|---|---|---|
| quick | add -ly | quickly |
| easy | y becomes i, add -ly | easily |
| gentle | -le becomes -ly | gently |
| automatic | add -ally | automatically |
03Good and well, fast, hard and late
Good is an adjective, and well is its adverb: She's a good cook. She cooks well. Well can also be an adjective that means healthy: I don't feel well.
Fast, hard, late and early have the same form as adjectives and adverbs. There is no fastly. Hardly and lately are different words: hardly means almost not, and lately means recently.
- She works hard. (She works a lot.)
- She hardly works. (She almost doesn't work.)
- I got home late.
- I've been tired lately.
04After be, look, feel and seem
Verbs like be, look, feel, seem, sound, smell and taste describe how something is, not an action, so they take an adjective. But when look is an action, use an adverb: She looked carefully at the contract.
- You look tired.
- That sounds great.
- The bread smells amazing.
05Casual American speech
In relaxed conversation, many Americans say real good, drive safe or come quick. People understand them, but they're informal. In emails, at school and in job interviews, say really good, drive safely and come quickly. The reply I'm good to How are you? is normal everyday English.
06Common mistakes
He drives very careful.
He drives very carefully.
Carefully describes how he drives, so it must be an adverb.
She speaks English very good.
She speaks English very well.
Well is the adverb of good.
I work hardly every day.
I work hard every day.
The adverb is hard. Hardly means almost not.
This milk smells badly.
This milk smells bad.
Smell describes a state here, so it takes an adjective.