Adjectives and adverbs describe things. For example, compare the phrase “the bear” to “the harmless bear” or the phrase “run” to “run slowly.”

In both of these cases, the adjective (harmless) or adverb (slowly) changes how we understand the phrase. When you first read the word bear, you probably didn’t imagine a harmless bear. When you saw the word run you probably didn’t think of it as something done slowly.

Adjectives and adverbs modify other words: they change our understanding of things.

For a catchy introduction to these words in song, watch the following videos.