Lesson 26 of 36 · intermediate
Adjectives & Adverbs
Describe nouns with adjectives and actions with adverbs.
Adjectives describe nouns
Adjectives usually come before a noun or after 'be' and other linking verbs.
- a beautiful garden
- The movie was boring.
- She seems happy.
Adverbs describe verbs
Adverbs describe how an action is done, and usually come after the verb. Most are formed by adding -ly to an adjective.
- She sings beautifully.
- He drives carefully.
- quick → quickly
- happy → happily
Irregular adverbs
Some adverbs don't follow the -ly rule.
- good → well
- fast → fast
- hard → hard
- He works hard.
- She speaks English well.
Order of adjectives
When using multiple adjectives before a noun, they usually follow this order: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material.
- a beautiful small old round red Italian vase
- a lovely little wooden box
- an ugly big new car
More examples in context
Getting adjectives and adverbs right makes descriptions much more precise.
- He answered the question correctly.
- That was an incredibly difficult test.
- She looked nervous before the interview.
- They walked slowly through the museum.
- This is a really interesting book.
- He speaks quietly but clearly.
Common mistakes to avoid
These are frequent adjective/adverb errors, and how to correct them.
- ✗ She sings beautiful. → ✓ She sings beautifully. (use the adverb with a verb)
- ✗ He drives good. → ✓ He drives well.
- ✗ She speaks English perfect. → ✓ She speaks English perfectly.
- ✗ a red big house → ✓ a big red house (size before color)
Quick practice
Choose the correct adjective or adverb form, then check your answer.
- She dances ___ (graceful). (answer: gracefully)
- He is a ___ (careful) driver. (answer: careful)
- They finished the race ___ (quick). (answer: quickly)
- He plays the guitar really ___ (good). (answer: well)
- It was a ___ (surprising) result. (answer: surprising)