Grammar for Beginners – Introduction to adverbs

Good morning!

Who remembers what an adverb is?

In today’s lesson we will look at what adverbs are and how to use them. Also, make sure to do the exercise at the end and let us know the answer in the comments’ section!

An adverb describes a verb. It says how, when or where something happens.

For example:

“I ran quickly” – quickly says how I ran.

“I will go tomorrow” – tomorrow says when I will go.

“I have looked everywhere for my book” – everywhere says where I have looked.

The most common adverbs are “how” adverbs and we often make them by adding –ly to an adjective.

For example:

Slow – Slowly

Nervous – Nervously

Happy – Happily

There is one exception, do you know it?

It’s “hardly”. The adjective “hard” means that something is very solid and firm but the adverb “hardly” means almost never.

Adverbs of degree

Adverbs of degree are words that are used with adjectives to describe how much. They are also called intensifiers.

For example:

“Jane is very sad she lost the competition”

“Paul is really clever; he always gets A+”

“Julia is extremely funny. She should be a comedian!”

“That movie makes me a little nostalgic”

“Please could you turn the music up a bit?”

“John is quite angry about his broken toy”

“Sheila is terribly sick; she is in hospital”

Exercise

Complete each sentence using either an adjective or an adverb. Let us know if you have any questions!

1. What a big garden you have! It’s ________ (enormous / enormously)

2. Isabelle and Mario are ________ married (happy / happily)

3. Jennifer is ________ worried about not having any money (terrible / terribly)

4. Stop! You are ________ talking (continuous / continuously)

5. Joe is always ________ when he is skiing (careful / carefully)

6. My Science test went very ________  (bad / badly)

7. The children are being very ________   today (quiet / quietly)

8. The computer works ________  (perfect / perfectly)

9. I love this dress! I really like ________  clothes (colourful / colourfully)

10. Please speak ________  in the library (quiet / quietly)

Great job! Was that easy or difficult?

4 comments

  1. 1) enormous, 2)happily, 3)terribly, 4)continuously, 5) careful, 6) bad, 7)quiet, 8)perfectly (because it is describing the the verb and adverbs describe verbs, adjectives or other adverbs), 9)colourful, 10) quietly

  2. The answers are. 1_enormous 2_happily 3_terribly 4-continuously 5-careful 6-bad 7-quiet 8-perfectly 9-colourful 10-quietly.

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