Adjectives and adverbs (quick / quickly)
Adjectives describe nouns (a quick answer). Adverbs describe verbs (she answered quickly). Most adverbs add -ly to the adjective.
| adjective | adverb |
|---|---|
| slow | slowly |
| careful | carefully |
| easy | easily |
| good | well |
| fast / hard / late | fast / hard / late |
After be, look, feel, seem: adjective
These verbs describe a state, so they take the adjective: You look tired. The soup smells good.
Examples
- Please speak slowly.
- She speaks English very well.
- He works hard.
- I feel bad about it.
- She carried the glass carefully.
Common mistakes
- ✗ He speaks quiet.✓ He speaks quietly.A word that describes how someone speaks is an adverb, which needs -ly.
- ✗ She cooks very good.✓ She cooks very well.The adverb of good is well, which describes the verb cooks.
- ✗ They arrived lately for the meeting.✓ They arrived late for the meeting.Late is both adjective and adverb, whereas lately means recently.
- ✗ The cake smells deliciously.✓ The cake smells delicious.Smell describes a state here, so it takes an adjective and not an adverb.
- ✗ He looked at me angry.✓ He looked at me angrily.The manner of looking is described by an adverb, here with -ly.