Brighter Grammar 1 - Margaret Macaulay 1987

Lesson Seventeen. Adverbs

We saw in Lesson 6 that adjectives are used with nouns.

Other words go with verbs. The words that we use with verbs are called adverbs.

Some adverbs tell how an action is done. For example:

The old gentleman walked (verb) slowly (adverb) along the street.

The little boy ran (verb) quickly (adverb).

The woodcutter sat (verb) sadly (adverb) by the side of the river.

These adverbs are called adverbs of manner.

Adverbs are often formed by adding -ly to an adjective.

The boy is a quick (adjective) runner.

The boy runs quickly (adverb).

The old gentleman was a slow (adjective) walker.

The old gentleman walked slowly (adverb).

The little boy’s behaviour was bad (adjective).

The little boy behaved badly (adverb).

Note that when the adjective ends in -y, the adverb changes the -y to -i

The bird sang a merry (adjective) song.

The bird sang merrily (adverb).

But there are some adverbs that are not formed like this.

Here are some examples:

John is a hard (adjective) worker.

John works hard (adverb).

This is a fast (adjective) train.

It goes very fast (adverb).

The little girl’s behaviour was good (adjective).

The little girl behaved well (adverb).

Adverbs usually follow the verb they go with; adjectives usually come before the noun they go with.

A few adverbs tell us when (not how) an action was done.

The woodcutter lost his axe yesterday. (When did he lose it?)

We must come to school tomorrow. (When must we come to school?)

These adverbs are called adverbs of time.

A few adverbs tell us where an action happened.

I sat down there. (Where did I sit down?)

These adverbs are called adverbs of place.

We use an adverb with a verb to tell how, when or where an action happens. We say the adverb modifies the verb.

Exercises

A Find the adverbs in these sentences.

Example: You’ll do this exercise carefully, won’t you?

Answer: carefully

1 The birds sang sweetly.

2 The man spoke slowly.

3 The children played happily.

4 The boy wrote his exercise badly.

5 The woodcutter looked sadly at the river.

6 When he saw his axe, he smiled happily.

7 Every soldier fought bravely.

8 You must work hard if you want to do this exercise correctly. (2 adverbs)

9 Richard ate his breakfast fast and then ran quickly to school. (2 adverbs)

10 The school team played well and won their game easily. (2 adverbs)

11 Come here,

12 Why did you go there?

13 I did the work yesterday.

14 You didn’t do it well; you must do it carefully now. (3 adverbs)

15 The girl shouted suddenly, ’The car is here!’ (2 adverbs)

16 The teacher spoke clearly, and we understood her easily. (2 adverbs)

17 George worked hard and did the exercise well today. (3 adverbs)

18 The child opened the door of the cage and the bird flew out.

19 He didn’t know the bird would fly away.

20 You came here late today; you must come early tomorrow. (5 adverbs)

В Use adverbs from the list in the box to fill the blank spaces. Say whether your adverb shows the manner, or time, or place of the action. We have completed number 1 for you.

well quickly carefully brightly tomorrow tonight hard loudly here fast today slowly carelessly

1 The boy wrote quickly (manner).

2 You are working too ... .

3 I will do the work ... .

4 Open the door ... .

5 Come... . I want to speak to you.

6 I saw Jane … and I shall see her again ... .

7 Carmen drove the car ... along the wide road but ... in the crowded streets.

8 It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining …, the birds were singing ... and the children were playing in the field.

9 Mary is a good singer; I didn’t know she sang so ... .

10 Learning English is hard work, but I want to learn it and so I will work ... .

C Read this story.

Fire! fire!

Mr King was writing busily in his big room. His son Ian rushed excitedly into the room and shouted loudly, ’Fire, fire! The kitchen is on fire!’

Mr King got up quickly, and he and Ian ran as fast as they could to the kitchen.

’Look there,’ shouted Ian, and he pointed to the flames. He had carelessly left a towel near the stove and it was burning fiercely.

Mr King saw a big pan of boiling water on the top of the stove. ’You silly boy,’ he said. ’Why didn’t you throw that on the burning towel? That would have put it out quickly.’

’Oh no,’ said the boy, slowly. ’That water would be useless; it’s hot water.’

Draw four columns like this:

Into the first column put all the nouns in the story. Put all the verbs into the second column. Into the third one put all the adjectives. And put all the adverbs into the fourth one. If the adverb tells how the action was done, put ’M’ (for manner) after it. If it tells when, put ’T’ (for time). If it tells where, put ’P’ (for place). We have done the first sentence for you.