Adjectives & Adverbs
Adjectives paint pictures of nouns; adverbs tell us how, when, where and how often things happen. Learn to compare correctly and never mix up good and well again.
1What is an adjective?
An adjective is a describing word. It tells us more about a noun or pronoun — what kind, how many, how much, which one or whose.
- Before the noun: “Rahul has a red bicycle.” “She wore a beautiful dress.”
- After am / is / are / was / were / looks / seems / feels: “The soup is hot.” “You look tired.”
Find the noun first, then ask “What kind of ___?” What kind of bicycle? A red one. The answer word is the adjective.
2Kinds of adjectives
| Kind | Answers | Examples | Sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Quality (descriptive) | What kind? | brave, tall, red, soft, honest, Indian | Tenali was a clever man. |
| Quantity | How much? (uncountable) | some, much, little, enough, whole, no, all | There is little milk in the jug. |
| Number | How many? / In what order? | one, two, first, second, many, few, several, each, every | She won the first prize. Many birds came. |
| Demonstrative | Which one? (pointing) | this, that, these, those + noun | These shoes are new. |
| Possessive | Whose? | my, your, his, her, its, our, their + noun | Our school is big. |
| Interrogative | asks a question, + noun | which, what, whose + noun | Which colour do you like? |
The same word can be two kinds. Some is quantity in “some water” (how much?) but number in “some boys” (how many?). And this, which, my are adjectives only when a noun follows: “This book is mine” (adjective) vs “This is mine” (pronoun).
What kind of adjective is underlined? “I have enough sugar for the cake.”
3Order of adjectives
When two or more adjectives come before a noun, English follows a natural order. At Class 4 level, remember number first, then opinion, then facts like size, age, shape, colour, origin, material.
4Degrees of comparison
Adjectives have three degrees:
- Positive: “Riya is tall.” — no comparison. Also “as tall as”.
- Comparative: “Riya is taller than Mira.” — two people or things.
- Superlative: “Riya is the tallest girl in the class.” — one out of three or more.
Spelling rules
| Rule | Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short words: + er / + est | tall, high, small | taller, higher | tallest, highest |
| Ends in -e: + r / + st | wise, large, brave | wiser, larger | wisest, largest |
| Consonant + y: y → ier / iest | happy, easy, heavy | happier, easier | happiest, easiest |
| One vowel + one consonant: double it | big, hot, thin, fat, sad | bigger, hotter | biggest, hottest |
| Long words (usually 3+ syllables, and many 2-syllable words): more / most | beautiful, interesting, careful, famous, crowded | more beautiful, more crowded | the most interesting |
Irregular adjectives (learn by heart)
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| good / well | better | best |
| bad / ill | worse | worst |
| little (amount) | less | least |
| much / many | more | most |
| far | farther / further | farthest / furthest |
| old | older / elder (family) | oldest / eldest (family) |
less is for amounts you cannot count (less money, less water, less time); fewer is for things you can count (fewer books, fewer mistakes). “Ravi has less money than Mohan.” Lesser means “smaller in importance” (a lesser-known writer) — not “less money”.
elder / eldest are used only for people in a family, before a noun: “my elder brother”. We say “older than”, never “elder than”.
Never use more/most together with -er/-est, and never add -er to an irregular word.
✗ “Her handwriting is more better than mine.” → ✓ “Her handwriting is better than mine.”
✗ “Asha is the most tallest girl.” → ✓ “Asha is the tallest girl.”
✗ gooder, badder, more big, interestingest — none of these exist.
than → comparative (“taller than”). the … in / of → superlative (“the highest peak in the world”). If the blank already has more before it, the answer is the positive form: “Is Delhi more crowded than Hyderabad?” — not “more crowdeder”.
Fill in the blank: The cheetah is the ______ land animal in the world.
Fill in the blank: This year our class made ______ mistakes than last year.
5What is an adverb? Four kinds
An adverb adds meaning to a verb, an adjective or another adverb. “The tortoise walked slowly.” (how did it walk?) “The tea is very hot.” (how hot?) “She spoke quite softly.”
| Kind | Question | Examples | Sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manner | How? | slowly, carefully, happily, well, fast, hard | Tara sings beautifully. |
| Time | When? | now, then, today, yesterday, tomorrow, soon, late, already | We met yesterday. |
| Place | Where? | here, there, inside, outside, everywhere, upstairs, away | The children are playing outside. |
| Frequency | How often? | always, usually, often, sometimes, rarely, never, daily, once | He always brushes after meals. |
| Degree (bonus) | How much? | very, too, quite, almost, so, rather | It is too cold. |
Where frequency adverbs go: before the main verb (“She often reads”), but after am/is/are/was/were (“He is never late”).
Which of these is an adverb of place?
6Making adverbs with -ly
Many adverbs of manner are made by adding -ly to an adjective. Watch the spelling:
| Rule | Adjective → Adverb |
|---|---|
| Most words: + ly | slow → slowly, sweet → sweetly, beautiful → beautifully, careful → carefully |
| Consonant + y: y → ily | happy → happily, easy → easily, lazy → lazily, angry → angrily |
| Ends in -le: e → y | gentle → gently, simple → simply, terrible → terribly |
| Ends in -ll: + y | full → fully, dull → dully |
| Special | true → truly, whole → wholly, good → well |
Not every word ending in -ly is an adverb! friendly, lovely, lonely, ugly, silly, costly, lively, elderly are adjectives: “a friendly dog”. To use them like adverbs, say “in a friendly way”.
Which is the correct adverb formed from busy?
7Adjective or adverb? The tricky pairs
The golden rule: an adjective describes a noun; an adverb describes a verb (or an adjective/adverb). So look at the word being described.
| Adjective (describes a noun) | Adverb (describes a verb) |
|---|---|
| She is a good pianist. | She plays the piano very well. |
| Tara has a beautiful voice. | Tara sings beautifully. |
| He is a careful driver. | He drives carefully. |
| It was a fast train. | The train was moving very fast. |
| This is hard work. | She works hard. |
| We took an early bus. | We reached early. |
| The wall is very high. | The kite flew high. |
Same form for both: fast, hard, early, late, high, straight, daily — there is no “fastly”. Be careful: hardly means “almost not” (“I could hardly see”) and lately means “recently” — they are not the adverbs of hard and late.
The chameleon word “fast”
In olympiad papers, the part of speech depends on the job the word does in the sentence:
| Sentence | “fast” is a… | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The cheetah is a fast runner. | Adjective | describes the noun runner |
| The train was moving very fast. | Adverb | tells how it was moving |
| Muslims fast during Ramazan. | Verb | the action of going without food |
| He is keeping a fast today. | Noun | comes after a; names the period without food |
“Aaradhya plays the piano very good.” ✗ — good is an adjective and cannot describe the verb plays. ✓ “very well”. But “I am well” (= healthy) uses well as an adjective, and “The food smells good” is right because smells here links to the noun food.
What part of speech is the underlined word? “Rohan works hard for his exams.”
8Spot the error
| ✗ Wrong | ✓ Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| She is more cleverer than me. | She is cleverer than I am. | double comparative |
| This is the most best day. | This is the best day. | best is already superlative |
| Ravi is tallest than Anu. | Ravi is taller than Anu. | than → comparative |
| He is elder than me. | He is older than I am. | “elder” is not used with “than” |
| Everest is highest peak. | Everest is the highest peak. | superlative needs “the” |
| He speaks English very good. | He speaks English very well. | adverb for the verb |
| Walk slow on the stairs. | Walk slowly on the stairs. | adverb for the verb |
| The dog barked loud and angry. | The dog barked loudly and angrily. | adverbs for the verb |
| She runs fastly. | She runs fast. | “fastly” is not a word |
| a wooden old big box | a big old wooden box | size → age → material |
Watch and explore
- 📖What are adjectives?bbc.co.uk/bitesize · examples, video and activity
- 📖What is an adverb?bbc.co.uk/bitesize · how, when, where and how often
- 🎮Parts of speech: the modifierkhanacademy.org · practise comparatives, superlatives and adverbs
- 📖Adjectivesimple.wikipedia.org · easy-English overview
- 📖Adverbsimple.wikipedia.org · easy-English overview
9Quick recap
- An adjective describes a noun: a red bicycle; the soup is hot.
- Kinds: quality (what kind), quantity (how much), number (how many), demonstrative (this/that + noun), possessive (my/our + noun), interrogative (which/what/whose + noun).
- Order: number → opinion → size → age → colour → material → noun.
- Positive (tall) → comparative + than (taller) → the + superlative (the tallest).
- Double the consonant: big → bigger → biggest; y → ier: happy → happier.
- Long words take more/most: more crowded, the most interesting.
- Irregular: good/well–better–best, bad–worse–worst, little–less–least, many/much–more–most.
- Never “more better” or “most tallest”; less for amounts, fewer for countable things.
- An adverb describes a verb, adjective or adverb: walked slowly, very hot.
- Kinds: manner (how), time (when — yesterday), place (where — here), frequency (how often — always).
- -ly spelling: happy → happily, gentle → gently, true → truly; good → well.
- friendly, lovely, lonely are adjectives even though they end in -ly.
- fast, hard, early, late are both adjectives and adverbs — decide by the word they describe.