English Grammar for the Utterly Confused - Laurie Rozakis 2003

Is It an Adjective or an Adverb?
Chapter 4. Using Adjectives and Adverbs Correctly
Part 2 Usage and Abusage

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Recall from Chapter 1 that adjectives and adverbs are modifiers: They tell about a word by describing it. In this chapter, you will learn how to use adjectives and adverbs accurately as you describe people, places, things, and actions. This will make your writing and speech correct as well as colorful!

Is It an Adjective or an Adverb?

Both adjectives and adverbs describe other words.

• Adjectives describe a noun or pronoun.

• Adverbs describe a verb, adjective, or other adverb.

Quick Tip

Many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective (poor → poorly; gentle → gently), but a number of common adverbs do not follow this pattern.

Further, some words can be either adjectives or adverbs, depending on how they are used in a sentence.

Therefore, the only reliable way to tell the difference between adjectives and adverbs is to analyze their function in a sentence. The following chart shows you how to examine sentences to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs.