Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. If your teacher marks "Ad" on your paper, determine which error you have made.
1. adjectives and adverbs. 2. Deg: comparative and superlative degrees. 3. Neg: double negatives. 5. Modifiers ending in -ly.
1. Do not confuse adjectives and adverbs. The italicized words below modify verbs:
WRONG: I run slow. You behaved bad. We played good. RIGHT: I run slowly. You behaved badly. We played well. Whereas action verbs require adverbs ("I run slowly"), linking verbs (to be, to become, to feel, to seem) require predicate adjectives. Often people mistakenly use adverbs with to feel:
WRONG: I feel badly. RIGHT: I feel bad. To act can be an action verb, requiring an adverb, or a linking verb, requiring a predicate adjective:
ACTION VERB: The Oscar winner acted brilliantly.
LINKING VERB: I acted innocent, but Mom knew I had broken her vase.
Well can be an adverb meaning "skillfully" ("I drive well") or an adjective meaning "healthy" ("I don't feel well").
2. Deg: use comparative and superlative degrees correctly. For related rules, see Comp (incomplete comparisons) in Part Two.
Avoid using:
(a) superlatives to compare two things
WRONG (TWO THINGS): The best boxer won. RIGHT: The better boxer won. (b) redundant comparatives
WRONG (REDUNDANT): more livelier RIGHT: livelier (c) superlatives as vague intensifiers
WRONG (VAGUE): She is the sweetest girl. RIGHT: a sweet girl; the sweetest girl I know (d) degrees of absolutes
WRONG (ABSOLUTES): more superior, more immortal, most perfect, most unique, most totally
Grammar Tip: Modifiers have degrees: good, better, best. Use the comparative degree to compare two things; the superlative for three or more things.
3. Neg: avoid double negatives. Double negatives cancel each other:
REDUNDANT: I never did nothing. RIGHT: I never did anything. BETTER: I did nothing.
4. Art: use articles correctly. If your teacher marks "Art," find which rule you violated:
a. Use a before words that begin with consonants, an before words that begin with vowels.
b. Know when to use the indefinite article (a, an), the definite article (the), or no article:
A FOR SOMETHING UNSPECIFIED: She hopes to attend a West Coast college.
A FOR SOMETHING NOT YET MENTIONED: A bird is perched in the tree.
THE FOR SOMETHING SPECIFIED: The college she attends will be lucky.The bird is singing.
PLURAL FOR MANY OR ALL THINGS OF A TYPE: Colleges are recruiting her. Birds can fly.
NO ARTICLE FOR SOME GENERAL NOUNS: College helped him grow. He plans to go to college.
c. Use a or an only with count nouns, not with mass nouns. Count nouns refer to things that can be counted individually, mass nouns to things that cannot, such as sand, happiness or gravity:
WRONG: a sand RIGHT: sand, a grain of sand WRONG: The poet uses an imagery. RIGHT: The poet uses imagery [or an image].
5. Modifiers ending in -ly. Two errors are common:
Although most modifying words that end in -ly are adverbs, you must beware of exceptions. Cowardly, dastardly, friendly, gingerly, leisurely, likely, lowly, miserly, niggardly, and timely are usually adjectives:
The man with the stubbed toe takes gingerly steps. Class ended in timely fashion.
Avoid using consecutive -ly adverbs:
AWKWARD: The job was probably highly carefully done.