Something great about Adjectives and Adverbs

          There is much confusion in the mind of English users,  including top notch writers,  about Adjectives and Adverbs.  To tell you a truth, an adjective and a particular type of Adverb  are very closely related and in fact they are like cousin brothers/sisters.

          What is an Adjective?

          Adjective is a simple word that describes a Common noun in some way except in terms of its number and is always placed to the immediate left of that common noun and thus becoming its partner.  Do note that a word becomes an adjective only if it is located to the left of a common noun it is describing. If not, its identity would be something else. It is not possible to say  with certainty that a word is an adjective just by looking at it.  Take the word ‘good’.  It  will become an adjective only if it partners a common noun and not otherwise. What will happen if ‘good’ is  some words away from a common noun; what would be its identity then?  In actual fact, it will be an Adverb of Manner.

           What is an Adverb

            There are three types of Adverbs:  Adverb of Manner, Adverb of Place and Adverb of time.

             Adverb of Manner is similar to Adjective and  would also describe a  noun in terms of its quality but standing quite a few words away at the right side of the concerned noun. Consider the sentence, “Judy acted brilliantly  in yesterday’s drama.” The word ‘brilliantly’ describes Judy in terms of her quality, which happens to be a proper noun and a subject  as well and is away by one word and is all by itself. So, Adverb of manner could describe a proper noun also while Adjective wouldn’t.  Here is another sentence. “My mother manages her kitchen marvellously well.”  “Marvellously  well” is related to the subject – My mother  and describes the quality of  a common noun.  Adverb of Manner will always answer the Test question, HOW?

             Adverb of Time and Place   will give information about the Place and Time the Subject is involved in. These two varieties of Adverbs are concerned  only with  the Subject of a sentence and no other noun.. Here are two examples.

(a)    John is in the toilet.  ‘Toilet’ is a place and is linked with the subject, John.

     ‘Toilet’ will answer the Test question, WHERE? John is 

      WHERE?

       (b) Monica returned from her school after 10 p.m.  “After 10 p.m”

             is a time and   is the answer for the test question, WHEN and is

             related only to Monica, a proper noun.

       Do remember  that an Adverb of manner would describe a common noun or proper noun standing away from it. While the Adverb f Time and Place are the time and place the ‘subject noun’  is being led into. They will have nothing to do with any other noun found in a sentence. Examine the following sentence:

(c) George did teach  me mathematics  on a Sunday morning.    

         S         A    V     O1       O2                    Adv of Time

       In the sentence above, there are two objects – me and mathematics. But the adverb of Time ‘Sunday morning’ is linked only with George, the subject and not with ‘me’ and ‘mathematics’.

       Adverb of Time and Place may have some supporting words like “on”and “a”.

        Some users think that any Noun found after the grammar part of a sentence, is Object. Wrong. If that Noun  is a noun of a :”person or thing only”,  it would be object. Any other noun would be a noun of Place or Time and would  be Adverb of Place or Time.

       Part of speech identity

        If I show you a word like “fine” and ask you to give its identity, you should say, “Adjective cum adverb” or, “Adverb”.  You can never call it “Adjective” until it is placed to the left side of a common noun. 

       Incidentally, all Adjectives could be used as  ‘Adverb of Manner’. But, the reverse statement is not true since there are some  ‘pure adverbs’ which we  could never  use as Adjectives. There comes to my mind just two  pure adverbs  – soon and well. There  could be more.  You may like to do some research on it.

                                             ------     

                                 Israel Jayakaran  [ Sweet grace ]

Share this article

Tags:

Politics Factzone: The truth about Kim Jong Il Kim Jong Il, the leader of the free world, has decided to move on to more fertile grounds, leaving with us just the memories of 8-color rainbows, singing Korean women and couple of nuclear weapons. But who was this man whose next ambition would have been to get the next Nobel Peace prize? Here are just a few facts you should know about. more Top 5 Conspiracy Theories Related to John F. Kennedy's Assassination 26.Aug 2011 Since just after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, conspiracy theories abou...read ISRAEL KEEPING GHADDAFI AFLOAT 10.Mar 2011 ...read Glen Beck Is NOT the Anti-Christ! 10.Mar 2011 Hurtful and fiery rhetoric is now media’s default setting! This slippery and m...read Recipe for A REVOLUTION! (10 easy steps - try not to get burned!) 28.Feb 2011 Rebellion is cooking in the air. People are mad as hell, and not going to take...read THE ASSANGE CASE. CIA INTERFERED WITH SWEDISH LEGAL PROCESSES EXTREME RIGHT POLITICS A DANGER TO EUROPEAN UNITY THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY. OUT OF TOUCH, OUT OF FOCUS, OUT OF CREDIBILITY AND HOPEFULLY, OUT OF THE DOOR Opinion World governments charged with criminal negligence (in response to Megaupload case) EARTH (thecheers.org) - Federal authorities of the universe have charged the governments of all the countries in the world as well as the operators actually in power in these countries with operating a criminal enterprise, the Galaxy warriors announced Today. more The Great OSCARS 2011 – or so it would seem 5.Mar 2011 So, how exciting......a morning off, the Academy Awards. I wish I could say the...read Top 7 Expensive Bordellos. Prostitution: Shakedown, Tier Down, and Priced Out 31.Jan 2011 According to a report of the Washington DC-based US Department of State, The Ph...read The Great Secret and Reason for the JFK Assassination 11.Oct 2010 The great question is why the great secret? On June 4 1963, President Kennedy s...read Don't Do it! The 3 Worst Times to Get Tattoos 4.Oct 2010 As a general rule, tattoos gotten after 2 am are a bad idea. But in a bigger pi...read

Travel Travel Warning 13 September 2010 - DO NOT TRAVEL TO IRAN 13.Sep 2010 TRAVELWISE has been watching the situation in Iran for some months in relation ...read more TRAVELWISE TRAVEL ADVISORY 5th June 2010. DO NOT TRAVEL TO ISRAEL. 5.Jun 2010 Given the recent incident whereby the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, used...read TRAVELWISE. 16 APRIL 2010. EUROPEAN TRAVEL ALTERNATIVES 16.Apr 2010 Travelwise issues the following advice in relation to cancelled flights to, fro...read TRAVELWISE 6 APRIL 2010. AUSTRALIAN AIR TRAVEL. THE BEST WAYS TO TRAVEL BY AIR IN AUSTRALIA. 5.Apr 2010 Regular readers might have seen and read the various advisory and no-fly notice...read TRAVELWISE 2 APRIL 2010. QANTAS. 2.Apr 2010 Some concerns have been raised in relation to some of the maintenance practices...read Sport No Payoff From the Playoffs $16.50 will Get Anyone in the Hall Mr McGwire Stupid Athlete Tricks Technology Think Big! Think the World's Largest International Trade Show Top 9 cool laptop accessories for laptop geeks Twittering: I'm not that interesting Cheers Jesus' Answering Machine Brown Couch or twelve midgets in the town square How To Be Happy Drugged Out Saturday Nights Muslim Decapitation: Bad, or Simply Misunderstood?

USA says on 2012-02-12 02:33:29 about vJblIbAMCgsmfU m6RqRy Of course, I understand a little about this post but will try cope with it!!....

kookik says on 2009-09-23 07:38:42 about pocock i loves him.

Reece Pocock says on 2008-09-22 19:21:59 about adjectives and adverbs Loved your article Israel. When writing fiction we are taught to avoid adverbs, and to a lesser extent adjectives. We are told to use a stronger verb or noun. Personally, I love the descriptive power of adjectives to lift the writing to include the reader. Adverbs are easier it avoid, but sometimes a verb has to be described. I'd be interested in your comments about avoiding adverbs.

	Post Comment    Your nickname    About what    Your comment   Are you human? How much is 1 + 2?