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To whom it may concern,

I have a question. In the section about adverb, it says that adverbs decribe verbs or adjectives. The sentence, "He is a good student." The word good is an adverb describing a or the verb is?
TH

The "good" is not the adverb, it is adjective. It is describing the noun, student.

I'm still not very clear in this page….How to know which is the adjective and which is the adverbs??

You need to work out what the word is doing: is it describing a noun (in which case it is an adjective), or is it describing either a verb or an adjective (in which case it is an adverb).

So do I, i'm still not clear to understand the differences between Adverb and adjective. I'm clear about the using of adjective but to use adverb in a sentense or identify who is an adverb, i dont clear at all.

See the post above (Lionheart). If the word describes a noun, it is an adjective:

a good student

If the word describes either a verb or an adjective, it is an adverb:

a student who works well (describing a verb)

an extremely intelligent student (describing an adjective)

thank you, it's very important to learn the difference between adverbs and adjectives.

I have a question about adverbs:
adverbs describe verbs or adjectives, so
she looks beautifully or she looks beautiful?

Look at rule 5, above.
After some verbs like "look" we use an adjective, so it should be "She looks beautiful".

when does a adverb go before a verb?
ex : I strongly believe that…
can I write 'I believe strongly that…'?

Normally the adverb goes before the verb, so "I strongly believe that…" However, in your example, you can put the adverb afterwards to emphasise the strength of your feeling.

The words sick and sickly are both adjectives, example,
1. The sick dog is sleeping
2. The girl is looking at her sickly dog

How to differentiate between these to words ?

"Sick" means "ill": the dog is actually sick at the moment with a medical problem.

"Sickly" means that the dog often gets ill, but it might not be ill right now.

adjective – how something( person,place or thing ) is. adj.is used for a noun. e.g fluent english.

adverb -how thigs happen.
adv. is used for an action. e.g speak fluently

I' Would like to know if the phrase below has two adjectives.
" I eat a piece of cake in my breakfast "

No. There are no adjectives in your sentence.
"I eat a piece of cake for breakfast" is correct.

i woud like to add that the following verbs are followed by adjectives(seem,look,be,become,smell,sound,feel,tasete),e.g,
be careful.
the dinner smells delicious.
iam getting cold to the bone.

I have a question.

I am sure that the words "real quick" do not go together, but am I right?

For example, if someone said, "We're going to go over the homework real quick," is it proper grammar?

vanessa »
In American English you can hear "real" with an adjective, but in British English we'd say "really quickly".

I'm still not clear what's different between an adverb and an adjective and how to use it. Cambodia. Thanks

Buon Toyota » An adjective describes a noun. (An interesting film / a good student.)
An adverb describes a verb (She spoke quickly) or an adjective (a well-known author).

Thank you very much for this clear and good explaination
amin-Saudi Arabia

thank you,and i have a question if the sentences contain both adjective and adverb for example a well-known book ,the adverb should come befor the adjective in every time?please answere me and thank you

You can say either "a well-known book" or "the book is well known".

thank you for your answere but i meaned that if i say i am really tired and i am tired really both of them are right?please give me the answere

Yes, both of them are right. "I am really tired" is stronger in meaning than "I am tired".

what is a best way to identify the word that is adj. or adv. English is very confusing. some word can be noun, adj, and verb. Example, the word "cold" — it can be noun or adj.
I know adj — modify noun and pronoun and Adv– modify verb, adv, and adj. But as I am speaking and trying to build a sentence in my mind, I have problem to use or to choice the adj. and adv. Thanks

the hints about the use of dead,fair, free etc for emphasizing on an adv or adj were really useful. but i have another question:im sure that MUCH MORE BETTER is correct can we also say much more beutiful?if not what should we say to emphasize on more than one syllable adjs?

You can't say "much more better" as "better" is already a comparative. It should be "much better".

You can say "much more beautiful".

Hi clare!! Thanks for this wonderful site,it helps me a lot.
I have question
Does adjective always put after the noun, and adverd before the verb and other adverb.?thanks

Adjectives generally go before the noun they describe, and adverbs generally before the verb they modify.

I notice the example of "high", the verb raise means from lower to higher, why do you put "high" after price? The "high" here describes the verb raise or noun price? Thanks a lot.

You can say "a high price" or "the price is high".

By the way, about the exact meaning and correct use of "quite" and rather". If somebody says : "He's quite good" and "He's rather good" or "I'm quite cold" and "I'm rather cold". What do they mean? Somebody says that "quite" has meaning worse than "rather", is it right???
Please clarify this.

Quite can mean two things, depending on the stress. If we don't stress it, it means "rather", but if we stress "quite" it can mean "very". "Rather" isn't very common in spoken English – we'd usually say "quite" or "a bit".

Please tell me about how to form compound adjective if you don't mind. Specifically, when do we use an "adj + n-ed" or "adj + n-ing" and "n + verb-ing" or "n + verb-ed". For example :
"cool-headed" but not "cool-heading"
"habit-forming" but not "habit-formed"
Why? Can we freely form these such adjectives when we need or basically look up dictionary?

I'm not sure there is a specific rule for how to use participles as adjectives. It seems to me (as a native speaker) that using the "ing" form shows less a result, and more a process. So "habit-forming" gives you the idea that an experience will help you to form a habit. Whereas the "ed" participle shows a result / final state. A cool-headed person has become that way rather than still being in the process of becoming cool-headed.

I would still advise you to check in a dictionary though!

could you tell me what we call this rule?with example, please?
(did and doing) at the same sentence.

Thanks so much

I don't understand. Can you give me an example of what you mean?

I mean : can we use did and doing at the same sentence?
Ex …………..did………and……….doing………..

You can use the past simple and the past continuous together, but this is a question for the past tenses page – not the adjectives page.

adjectives and adverbs are the most confusing especially when trying to pick up the most proper ones to describe something/actions.

for example I wanna tell some1 I like ur smell/odor too much
firstly, which noun is correct here "smell "or "odor"??
secondly, what is the most proper adjective I can use here? Lovely, nice , good, pleasant

finally, are these sentences correct :

" Im doing well"
" Im doing stronger"
" how are u doing?"
" I miss u dearly" or " I miss u intensely"
" how are u feeling now?" or" how do u feel now?
" He is busy and unlikely to come"

Here are the correct phrases:

You smell lovely!
I'm doing well.
I miss you very much.

thanks a lot Clare.. this site is amazing and helpful because it works on our language weakness,

as Im fond of football I always face lots of new adjectives/ adverbs in the news :

1- stunning :
Wyen Rooney stunning performance helped the red evils to get the 3 points. "
- he always does stunning things" correct????

2- genuine :
he should add some genuine pace to his attack.
pls give me more examples

3-"reputedly" can I use it as the word " reportedly" or there r differences?????

4- "the situation was becoming increasingly grave."
does "GRAVE" here means dangerous?.. and can I use another adjective and adverb instead of INCREASINGLY and GRAVE????

thanks in advance

1. Yes
2. genuine / real / effective
3. There are differences. Reported = it has been said or written; reputed = it has been thought, but not reported as truth
4. Yes: "increasingly dangerous / serious"

thanks for the stunning work clare, that indeed will help me improving my English.

I have a question about the adjective " beautiful " .I think use " beautiful " to describe appearance of someone.So sometimes I see in some case it's used to describe a song , a view ,a voice ….Can you give me some advise about it ?

which is the adverb is this phrase? "a well-known author" Thanks!

You can use "beautiful" to describe many things: looks (for a woman), appearance, a song, a voice, a view, a story…

There isn't. "Well-known" functions as an adjective in this phrase.

Thank you for this lesson :)
I thing i got the pattern but still not sure…
On the top of your lesson under highlighted word "Adverbs" you wrote a sentence "A well-known book". Later, in one of your answers (to Kay) you responded that it's adjective…

And another question:
in sentence " you look good today! " we say 'good' is adjective because it has to do will one of the senses (words like feel, look, taste, see,)?

"Well-known" functions as an adjective, but it's an adverb (well + known).

"You look good today" – good describes you, rather than look, so it's an adjective.

adjective is always before nouns and adverb is after verbs. besides, there are some verbs link with adjective such as "make, taste, smell, seem, feel…". And, "something, anyone, no one…" are before adjective.

In this sentence, The recent performance is better than their earlier ones, is better an adjective

It's the comparative form of "good".