Adjectives and adverbs are words that modify other words, or give more information about them. Consider the following sentences:
“Melanie is a girl.”
“Bill ran home.”
There are no adjectives or adverbs in these sentences. We only know that Melanie is a girl and that Bill ran home, nothing more. Adding an adjective or adverb provides more information:
“Melanie is a beautiful girl.”
“Bill quickly ran home.”
Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns, while adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. “Beautiful” is an adjective that tells us something about Melanie's appearance. “Quickly” is an adverb that tells us how fast Bill ran home. Adverbs are usually made by adding “ ly” to an adjective:
| Adjective | Adverb |
| quick | quickly |
| serious | seriously |
| slow | slowly |
| bad | badly |
There is one adjective with an irregular adverb:
| good | well |
And several adjectives are the same as their adverbs:
| fast | fast |
| early | early |
| late | late |