Adjectives vs. Adverbs

1. UseO An adjective describes a noun.

O He has a calm voice.O She wears expensive clothes.

O An adverb describes a) a verb, b) an adjective, c) another adverb.

O a) He speaks quietly.O b) She wears terribly expensive clothes.O c) He speaks incredibly quietly.

Translate!1. Sie sind ein schlechtes Team. They are a bad team.

2. Das Team spielt schlecht. The team plays badly.

3. Das Team ist extrem schlecht. The team is extremely bad.

4. Das Team spielt extrem schlecht. The team plays extremely badly.

BUT…!O There are certain verbs that are

described by adjectives instead of adverbs. These are:

appear be become feel get look seem smell sound stay taste

O Tom was hungry.O They seemed happy.O This soup tastes terrible.

Translate!1. Er fühlte sich glücklich. He felt happy.

2. Sie sahen müde aus. They looked tired.

3. Das tönt fürchterlich! This sounds terrible.

4. Bleib cool! Stay cool!

O Some of these verbs can be used with either an adjective or an adverb, depending on their meaning. These are:

appear look smell taste

adjective adverb

Mike looked angry. He looked carefully around. They appeared (to be) very sad. A waiter appeared suddenly.

The medicine tasted awful. Anna tasted her drink nervously.

2. FormationO Most adverbs are formed by adding -

ly to the adjective:

O polite – politelyO quick – quicklyO slow – slowlyO loud – loudlyO silent – silently

3. Spelling

O The final -e is not dropped:

O nice – nicelyO safe – safely

O -y after a consonant forms -ily:

O easy – easilyO happy – happily

O -le after a consonant forms -ly:

O impossible – impossiblyO reasonable – reasonably

O -ic forms -ically:

O tragic – tragicallyO dramatic – dramatically

exception: public – publicly

Special formsO There is only one irregular adjective –

adverb pair:

O good – well

O He is a very good tennis player.O He plays tennis very well.

O Remeber that we also use well (not good) with past participles:

O He is a well-dressed man.O She is a well-known physician.

Translate!1. Sie sind sehr gute Schüler. They are very good students.

2. Er kocht sehr gut. He cooks very well.

3. Sie sind wohlbekannte Professoren. They are well-known professors.

4. Du siehst heute sehr gut aus! You look very good today!

O There are some adverbs that have the same form as the adjective. The following words can be used both as adjectives and as adverbs:

deep early fast hard high late long low near right straight wrong

adjective adverb

He is a hard worker. He works very hard. I came on the fast train. The train went quite fast.

That’s a very deep cut. The knife went deep into his leg.

O Some of the words on the last slide do have ‘-ly forms’, but those have different meanings:

deep – deeply (very much) free – freely (uncontrolled) hard – hardly (almost not) high – highly (very) late – lately (recently) near – nearly (almost)

‘normal adverb’ ‘special adverb’

I tried hard to win the game. I can hardly hear you. Rachel arrived late. I’ve been busy lately. The plane flew very high. The material is highly toxic.

Translate!1. Er verlässt sein Haus kaum einmal. He hardly ever leaves his house.

2. Ich habe in letzter Zeit viel gelernt. I have studied a lot lately. (-> tense = present perfect)

3. Er war tief berührt von der Musik! He was deeply touched by the music.

4. Er ass fast fünfzig Hamburger! He ate nearly fifty hamburgers!

O Finally, there are a few adjectives that end in -ly. To these we cannot add a further -ly. We must either choose a different word for the adverb or say something like: in a ... way / manner. Adjectives ending in -ly are:

friendly ugly lively lovely lonely silly

adjective adverb

It was a lovely party. Everything went beautifully. She gave me an ugly look. She looked at me in an ugly way.

Translate!1. Sie grüsste mich freundlich. She greeted me in a friendly way / politely.

2. Du reagierst immer albern auf meine Fragen.

You always react to my questions in a silly way.

3. Er ist ein einsamer Mann. He is a lonely man.

4. Er lebt ganz einsam! He lives all alone! (=in a lonely manner)