Adjectives

An adjective modifies a noun and, in so doing, provides more information or detail about the noun. It might be anything from color to size to temperature to personality.

In certain cases, numbers can also be adjectives. When you say, “Seven is my lucky number,” seven is a noun, but when you say, “There are seven cats in this painting,” seven is an adjective, because it is modifying the noun cats.

Comparable Adjectives

Some adjectives are comparable: they exist on a continuum. For example, a person may be polite, but another person may be more polite, and a third person may be the most polite of the three. The word more here modifies the adjective polite to indicate that a comparison is being made (a comparative), and most modifies the adjective to indicate an absolute comparison (a superlative).

There is another way to compare adjectives in English. Many adjectives can take the suffixes –er and –est to indicate the comparative and superlative forms, respectively (e.g., great, greater, greatest). Some comparable adjectives are irregular: for example, good, better, best; bad, worse, worst).

There is no simple rule for knowing which pattern is correct for a particular adjective; however, the general tendency is for shorter adjectives to take the suffixes and for longer adjectives to use more and most.

• hotter (not more hot)

• more beautiful (not beautifuller)

• more pretentious (not pretentiouser)

When you use comparative adjectives, the adjective is often accompanied by the word than (e.g., “He is taller than I am”).

Non-Comparable Adjectives

Non-comparable adjectives, on the other hand, are not measured on a continuum but are binary. Something is either “adjective,” or it is not. She is “dead” or not “dead.” In general, see below, a person is never more or less dead. Other examples include dead, true, and unique.

Of course, this rule is often broken. Although pregnant is logically non-comparable (a woman is either pregnant or not), you may hear a statement like “She looks more and more pregnant each day.”

Don’t forget coordinate adjectives need a comma. Remember the test mentioned in the video: if you can reverse the order of the adjectives and you can put “and” between the adjectives, you need a comma.

If your adjectives are in different categories in DOSASCOMP, they must stay in that order, and we do not use a comma between the two.

Adverbs

Adverbs are words that modify or describe a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs are easily identified because they often end in ly, but this is not always the case.

Descriptions make our writing rich and specific, so we shouldn’t be afraid of using adjectives and adverbs in our sentences.

The following page on adverbs will provide helpful tips on how to correctly use adverbs and give you examples of how adverbs can add descriptive detail to your writing.

Adverbs occur either before or after the word they modify. An adverb may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity indicated by the verb:

• Neha sang loudly (loudly modifies the verb sang, indicating the manner of singing)

• We left it here (here modifies the verb phrase left it, indicating place)

• I worked yesterday (yesterday modifies the verb worked, indicating time)

• You often make mistakes (often modifies the verb phrase make mistakes, indicating frequency)

• He undoubtedly did it (undoubtedly modifies the verb phrase did it, indicating certainty)

• Adverbs can also modify noun phrases, prepositional phrases, or entire clauses or sentences, as in the following examples.

• I bought only the fruit (only modifies the noun phrase the fruit)

• Roberto drove us almost to the station (almost modifies the prepositional phrase to the station)

• Certainly we need to act (certainly modifies the sentence as a whole)

Intensifiers and Adverbs of Degree

Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree.

Adverbs may also undergo comparison, taking comparative and superlative forms. This is usually signified by adding more or most before the adverb (more slowly, most slowly). However, there are a few adverbs that take non-standard forms, such as well, for which better and best are used (i.e., “He did well, she did better, and I did best“).

Common Mistakes

Only

Have you ever noticed the effect the word only can have on a sentence, depending on where it’s placed? Let’s look at an example of this.

Only modifies the word that directly follows it. Whenever you use the word only make sure you’ve placed it correctly in your sentence.

Literally

A linguistic phenomenon is sweeping the nation: people are using literally as an intensifier. How many times have you heard statements like “It was literally the worst thing that has ever happened to me” or “His head literally exploded when I told him I was going to be late again”?

So what’s the problem with this? According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, the actual definition of literal is as follows:

• involving the ordinary or usual meaning of a word

• giving the meaning of each individual word

• completely true and accurate: not exaggerated[1]

According to this definition, literally should be used only when something actually happened. Our cultural usage may be slowly shifting to allow literally as an intensifier, but it’s best to avoid using literally in any way other than its dictionary definition, especially in formal writing.

The Royal Order of Adverbs

Like adjectives, adverbs have a “royal order.” While you may already have an innate sense of this order, it can be helpful to review the rules.

Comparing Adjectives and Adverbs

As we’ve learned, adjectives and adverbs act in similar but different roles. A lot of the time, this difference can be seen in the structure of the words. Clever is an adjective, and cleverly is an adverb. The adjective + ly construction suggests that the word is an adverb.

While –ly is helpful, it’s not a universal rule. Not all words that end in –ly are adverbs: lovely, costly, friendly, etc. And not all adverbs end in -ly: here, there, together, yesterday, aboard, very, almost, etc.

Some words can function both as an adjective and as an adverb:

• Fast is an adjective in “a fast car” (where it qualifies the noun car) but an adverb in “he drove fast” (where it modifies the verb drove).

• Likely is an adjective in “a likely outcome” (where it modifies the noun outcome) but an adverb in “we will likely go” (where it modifies the verb go).

Mistaking Adjectives and Adverbs

One common mistake with adjectives and adverbs is using one in the place of the other. For example, in the sentence “I wish I could write as neat as he can,” neat should be replaced with neatly, an adverb, since it’s modifying a verb. (“That’s real nice of you” is also incorrect; it should be “That’s really nice of you.”)

Remember, if you’re modifying a noun or pronoun, you should use an adjective. If you’re modifying anything else, you should use an adverb.

Good vs. Well

One of the most commonly confused adjective/adverb pairs is good and well. There isn’t really a good way to remember the distinction besides memorization. Good is an adjective. Well is an adverb.

Adapted from "Adjectives" by Lumen Learning, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). 

Adapted from "Adverbs" by Lumen Learning, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).