Adverb
Remember that we use adjectives (NOT ADVERBS) after some verbs, especially be, become, appear, look, feel, seem, smell, sound, taste etc.
EXERCISE 1
Complete each sentence using a word from the box. Sometimes you need the adjective and sometimes the adverb:
1 When the dogs weren’t able to find the lynx anywhere around, they found her behaviour strangely / strange.
2 They were really / real fed up with all the recent / recently mysteries and decided not to look for the lynx.
3 Kit didn’t look happy / happily about it but he didn’t say anything.
4 Their lunch break was unexpectedly / unexpected long and it was getting dark / darkly so quick / quickly that the team moved to the mountain.
5 In the evening sun the mount looked even more mysterious / mysteriously and magnificent / magnificently.
6 When Luna touched it carefully / careful, she yelped with surprise – it felt freezing / freezingly cold.
7 The dogs went around the mountain cautiously / cautious but didn’t find any slit or crack to get into.
8 Feeling confused / confusedly, the friends sat at the foot of this mount-tower to give it a good / well think.
9 At this moment the lynx suddenly / sudden popped up out of nowhere.
10 She looked calm / calmly as if she hadn’t disappeared at all.
FORMING ADVERBS
A lot of adjectives can be turned into adverbs by adding the ending —LY: bad – badly, perfect – perfectly, sudden – suddenly
For adjectives that already end in —Y, we change the y to i: angry – angrily, happy – happily
For adjectives ending in -IC, we add -ally: drastic – drastically, frantic – frantically
For adjectives that end in —LE, we change the e to y: subtle – subtly, terrible – terribly
But for other adjectives ending in —E, we keep the e: rude – rudely, brave – bravely
If an adjective already ends in -LY ((elderly, fatherly, friendly, lively, lonely, lovely, motherly, silly, ugly, etc) we don’t double -LY, we usually say in a ***** way/manner/fashion:
The lynx behaved in a friendly way. She spoke in a lively manner.
If adjectives end in —ED, we usually can’t add —LY, so again we use either the structure in a ***** way or a preposition (mostly in or from) and a related noun: Luna and Cuba lay down in an exhausted way. They lay down from exhaustion.
Some adjectives ending in —ED can become adverbs with —LY: excitedly, hurriedly, repeatedly, unexpectedly, supposedly, confusedly
As for adjectives ending in —ING, many of these can be turned into adverbs: The lynx was charmingly graceful.
Some adverbs have the same form as adjectives: big, cheap*, clean*, clear*, close*, cold, daily, dead, dear*, deep, direct, dirty, early, easy, extra, far, fast, fine*, free, hard, high, hourly, inside, kindly, last, late, long, loud*, low, monthly, past, quick*, quiet*, right, slow*, straight, sure, thin*, thick, tight, weekly, wide, wrong, yearly etc.
The adverbs with an asterisk (*) can be found with -Iy without a difference in meaning, but then they are more formal:
The dogs walked slow (informal) Kit walked slowly. (formal)
EXERCISE 2
Form adverbs from the following adjectives:
1 delicate —
2 logical —
3 serious —
4 cosy —
5 dramatic —
6 horrible —
7 scarce —
8 lovely —
9 quiet —
10 ugly —
ADVERBS WITH TWO FORMS
Some adverbs have two forms – one with -LY and one without – which actually have different meanings.
deep — a long way down
deeply — greatly
easy — gently and slowly
easily — without difficulty
free — without cost
freely — willingly
hard — intently / with effort
hardly — scarcely
high — at / to a high level
highly — very much
last – after all other
lastly — finally
late — not early
lately — recently
near —
