{"id":149,"date":"2016-08-08T20:49:13","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T20:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/styleguide\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=149"},"modified":"2017-08-16T17:39:42","modified_gmt":"2017-08-16T17:39:42","slug":"differences-between-adjectives-and-adverbs","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/chapter\/differences-between-adjectives-and-adverbs\/","title":{"raw":"Differences between Adjectives and Adverbs","rendered":"Differences between Adjectives and Adverbs"},"content":{"raw":"Adjectives and adverbs describe things. For example, compare the phrase \"the bear\" to \"the harmless\u00a0bear\" or the phrase \"they run\" to \"they run slowly.\"\r\n\r\nIn\u00a0both of these cases, the adjective (<em>harmless<\/em>) or the adverb (<em>slowly<\/em>) changes how we understand the phrase. When you first read the word\u00a0<em>bear<\/em>, you probably didn't\u00a0imagine a harmless\u00a0bear. When you saw\u00a0the word\u00a0<em>run<\/em> you probably didn't\u00a0think of it as something done slowly.\r\n\r\nAdjectives and adverbs\u00a0modify other words: they direct\u00a0our understanding of things towards more specificity.\r\n\r\nAdjectives and adverbs act in similar but different roles. Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns (\"a reactive nanoparticle;\" \"she is proficient\"); adverbs describe all the other parts of speech. Most intuitively, ad<em>verbs<\/em> modify <em>verbs <\/em>(\"our solution glowed brightly\"), but adverbs can also modify adjectives (\"a scarily reactive nanoparticle;\" \"she is thoroughly proficient\").\r\n\r\nA lot of the time this difference between adverbs and adjectives can be seen in the structure of the words:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>A <b>clever<\/b> new idea.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>A <b>cleverly<\/b> developed idea.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<em>Clever<\/em> is an adjective, and\u00a0<em>cleverly<\/em> is an adverb. This adjective +\u00a0<em>ly<\/em> construction is a short-cut to identifying adverbs.\r\n\r\nWhile -<em>ly<\/em> is helpful, it's not a universal rule.\u00a0Not all words that end in\u00a0-<em>ly<\/em> are adverbs: <em>lovely<\/em>, <em>costly<\/em>, <em>friendly, <\/em>etc. (these are adjectives, e.g. a <em>costly<\/em> mistake). Additionally,\u00a0not all adverbs end in <em>-ly<\/em>:\u00a0<i>here, there, together, yesterday, aboard, very,<\/i><i>\u00a0almost<\/i>, etc.\r\n\r\nSome words can function both as\u00a0an adjective and as an adverb:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><em>Fast<\/em> is an adjective in \"a <b>fast<\/b> car\" (where it qualifies the noun <i>car<\/i>), but an adverb in \"he drove fast\" (where it modifies the verb <i>drove<\/i>).<\/li>\r\n \t<li><em>Likely<\/em> is an adjective in \"a likely outcome\" (where it modifies the noun\u00a0<em>outcome<\/em>), but an adverb in \"we will likely go\" (where it modifies the verb\u00a0<em>go<\/em>).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<p>Adjectives and adverbs describe things. For example, compare the phrase &#8220;the bear&#8221; to &#8220;the harmless\u00a0bear&#8221; or the phrase &#8220;they run&#8221; to &#8220;they run slowly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In\u00a0both of these cases, the adjective (<em>harmless<\/em>) or the adverb (<em>slowly<\/em>) changes how we understand the phrase. When you first read the word\u00a0<em>bear<\/em>, you probably didn&#8217;t\u00a0imagine a harmless\u00a0bear. When you saw\u00a0the word\u00a0<em>run<\/em> you probably didn&#8217;t\u00a0think of it as something done slowly.<\/p>\n<p>Adjectives and adverbs\u00a0modify other words: they direct\u00a0our understanding of things towards more specificity.<\/p>\n<p>Adjectives and adverbs act in similar but different roles. Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns (&#8220;a reactive nanoparticle;&#8221; &#8220;she is proficient&#8221;); adverbs describe all the other parts of speech. Most intuitively, ad<em>verbs<\/em> modify <em>verbs <\/em>(&#8220;our solution glowed brightly&#8221;), but adverbs can also modify adjectives (&#8220;a scarily reactive nanoparticle;&#8221; &#8220;she is thoroughly proficient&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>A lot of the time this difference between adverbs and adjectives can be seen in the structure of the words:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A <b>clever<\/b> new idea.<\/li>\n<li>A <b>cleverly<\/b> developed idea.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Clever<\/em> is an adjective, and\u00a0<em>cleverly<\/em> is an adverb. This adjective +\u00a0<em>ly<\/em> construction is a short-cut to identifying adverbs.<\/p>\n<p>While &#8211;<em>ly<\/em> is helpful, it&#8217;s not a universal rule.\u00a0Not all words that end in\u00a0&#8211;<em>ly<\/em> are adverbs: <em>lovely<\/em>, <em>costly<\/em>, <em>friendly, <\/em>etc. (these are adjectives, e.g. a <em>costly<\/em> mistake). Additionally,\u00a0not all adverbs end in <em>-ly<\/em>:\u00a0<i>here, there, together, yesterday, aboard, very,<\/i><i>\u00a0almost<\/i>, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Some words can function both as\u00a0an adjective and as an adverb:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Fast<\/em> is an adjective in &#8220;a <b>fast<\/b> car&#8221; (where it qualifies the noun <i>car<\/i>), but an adverb in &#8220;he drove fast&#8221; (where it modifies the verb <i>drove<\/i>).<\/li>\n<li><em>Likely<\/em> is an adjective in &#8220;a likely outcome&#8221; (where it modifies the noun\u00a0<em>outcome<\/em>), but an adverb in &#8220;we will likely go&#8221; (where it modifies the verb\u00a0<em>go<\/em>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-149\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Revision and Adaptation. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Revision and Adaptation. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Gillian Paku. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: SUNY Geneseo. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Adjective. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adjective\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adjective<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>Adverb. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adverb\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adverb<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>The Electric Company - LY. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: NantoVision1. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/b4KybdSi1Fc\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/b4KybdSi1Fc<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>All Rights Reserved<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":17,"menu_order":33,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Adjective\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adjective\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Adverb\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Adverb\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"copyrighted_video\",\"description\":\"The Electric Company - LY\",\"author\":\"NantoVision1\",\"organization\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/b4KybdSi1Fc\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"arr\",\"license_terms\":\"Standard YouTube License\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revision and Adaptation\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revision and Adaptation\",\"author\":\"Gillian Paku\",\"organization\":\"SUNY Geneseo\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-149","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1485,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/149\/revisions\/1485"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/149\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-geneseo-guidetowriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}