Adjectives & adverbs

A-   Look at these examples:

• Our holiday was too short - the time went very quickly.

• The driver of the car was seriously injured in the accident.

Quickly and seriously are adverbs. Many adverbs are made from 

an adjective + -ly:

Adjective	quick	serious	careful	quiet	bad	heavy
Adverb	quickly	seriously	carefully	quietly	badly	heavily

Not all words ending in -ly are adverbs. Some adjectives end in -ly too, for example:

Friendly / lively / elderly / lonely / silly / lovely

B- Adjective or adverb

Adjectives (quick/careful etc.) tell us about a noun. We use adjectives before nouns and after some verbs, especially be:

• Tom is a careful driver, (not 'a carefully driver')

• We didn't go out because of the heavy rain.            

• Please be quiet.

• I was disappointed that my exam results were so bad.

We also use adjectives after the verbs look/ feel/ sound etc.

• Why do you always look so serious?

Compare:

She speaks perfect English                 

                Adjective + noun

Compare these sentences with look:

• Tom looked sad when I saw him. (= he seemed sad, his expression was sad)

Adverbs (quickly/carefully etc.) tell us about a verb. An adverb tells us how somebody does something or how something happens:

• Tom drove carefully along the narrow road, (not 'drove careful')

• We didn't go out because it was raining heavily, (not 'raining heavy')

• Please speak quietly, (not 'speak quiet')

• I was disappointed that I did so badly on the exam, (not 'did so bad')

• Why do you never take me seriously?

She speaks English perfectly.

       Verb + object + adverb

Tom looked at me sadly. (= he looked at me in a sad way)

C- W e also use adverbs before adjectives and other adverbs. 
For example:

- reasonably cheap  (adverb + adjective) 
- terribly sorry         (adverb + adjective)
- incredibly quickly   (adverb + adverb)

          

• It's a reasonably cheap restaurant and the food is extremely good.            

• Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to push you. (not 'terrible sorry')

• Maria learns languages incredibly quickly.                                                      

• The examination was surprisingly easy.

You can also use an adverb before a past participle (injured/ organised/ written etc.):

• Two people were seriously injured in the accident, (not 'serious injured')

• The meeting was very badly organised.

Source:http://www.tolearnenglish.com

Now check your knowledge online:

Test 1 Adjectives & adverbs

Test 2 Adjectives & adverbs

If you want more, go here.