ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS: Improving writing and grammar

A) ADJECTIVE ORDER In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun for example, She's a smart, energetic woman. When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according to type. These are the basic types of adjectives:

Opinion

An opinion adjective explains what you think about something (subjective information). For example: silly, beautiful, horrible, difficult A size adjective, of course, tells you how big or small something is. For example: large, tiny, enormous, little An age adjective tells you how young or old something or someone is. For example: ancient, new, young, old A shape adjective describes the shape of something. For example: square, round, flat, rectangular A colour adjective, of course, describes the colour of something. For example: blue, pink, reddish, grey An origin adjective describes where something comes from. For example: French, lunar, American, eastern, Greek A material adjective describes what something is made from. For example: wooden, metal, cotton, paper A purpose adjective describes what something is used for. These adjectives often end with -ing. For example: sleeping (as in sleeping bag), roasting (as in roasting tin)

Size

Age

Shape

Colour

Origin Material

Purpose

*Some examples of adjective order: Opinion Size Age young huge round Shape Colour Origin Material Purpose English metal

a a

silly

man bowl

B) ADJECTIVES AS NOUNS You can use the with the nationality adjectives which end in sh, -ch, -ss, or -ese. Dont add s to these words, or use them without the. Nationalities ending in an, and a few others (like Thai and Greek)) are both adjectives and nouns. We can use the plural to talk about the people from those countries. The Chinese invented paper. The English like tea a lot. Spanish are sociable. The Greeks are often extrovert people. We can use adjective + people with any nationality: Spanish people. To talk about one person, we can use a/an + adjective: An English man /woman /person; a Turk; a French. We can use the + some adjectives to talk about a specific group: the young, the homeless, the elderly, the sick... These expressions always take a verb in the plural: The rich are getting richer whereas the poor are even poorer. If we dont want to repeat a noun after an adjective, we can use the adjective + one (singular) /ones (plural): Two pizzas, please. Large ones. Which one do you prefer? The big one, please.

ADVERBS (or adverbials) An adverb can describe an action (He drove dangerously); they can also modify adjectives (really cheap) or other adverbs (incredibly fast). They can be one single word (well), or a phrase (once a week). We can classify adverbials into 5 main categories:

a) MANNER: They describe how something is done. They go before the main verb, after the auxiliary one, or at the end of the sentence. She patiently waited for the bus to come. Hes been playing tennis obsessively for hours. She wasnt seriously injured in the accident. b) FREQUENCY: They show how often an action takes place. They go before the main verb, but after the auxiliary verbs (be, do, have). The adverbs sometimes, usually, and normally can go at the beginning of a sentence followed by a comma. Sally doesnt usually go to the pool after work. Im never late for work. Normally, I play tennis at the weekends. c) TIME AND PLACE: They describe when /where the action happens. They usually go at the end of the sentence or clause. Adverbs of time such as now, soon, just go before the main verb, but after the auxiliary. She rarely goes to bed after 11.30. Theyve just finished their dinner. d) DEGREE: They describe how much something is done, or they modify an adjective. Very (+++) With adjectives, Just, really, adverbs or verbs terribly, simply absolutely, totally, awfully: That was an awfully difficult jump. With adjectives Very, extremely or adverbs The bridge was extremely old Rather (++) Quite, rather Its was rather expensive A little (+) A little, a bit She always eats a little.

Pretty, fairly Thats a pretty interesting comment With verbs or (Very) much, a lot Rather the comparative I enjoy dancing a They were degree lot rather shocked

Slightly Its getting cold in here Not much Its not much more expensive than the other one.

Slightly, very, extremely, terribly, incredibly... are used with

ordinary adjectives and adverbs and they go before them:

Shes incredibly rich. But we use absolutely, completely, totally... with extreme adjectives: The show was absolutely amazing. We can use really and quite both with ordinary and extreme adjectives. With ordinary adjectives, quite means moderately: However, with extreme adjectives, quite means absolutely: That was quite amazing. Shes quite good at French A little/ a bit can be used with adjectives and verbs. They go before the adjective but after the verb: She sleeps a bit in the afternoon. Shes a bit tired. Much/a lot are often used with verbs and they go after the verb phrase: I like watching tennis a lot. She doesnt like tennis much.

e) COMMENT/OPINION: They give the speakers opinion. They usually come at the beginning of a sentence and are followed by a comma. Luckily, we could talk to them at night. When there are several adverbs, the most common order is the following: manner place time Unfortunately, we arrived angrily to the hotel in the early morning. Most other adverbs go in mid-position: I just need ten minutes. She didnt even apologized. We still live in London.