Comparison of Adjectives & Adverbs: Examples, Sentences & Exercises

Introduction

In English grammar, there are a total of eight parts of speech among which, adjectives and adverbs are very important because they define other parts of speech.

Adjectives are mainly used to highlight nouns or pronouns, i.e. people, places, animals and things. Adverbs, on the other hand, are used to emphasise verbs, adjectives or adverbs.

For example

He was very polite. (adjective)

He talks very politely. (adverb)

In the first sentence, polite is used in reference to a pronoun which is an adjective, while in the second sentence, politely is used with a verb that is an adverb.

Before knowing the difference between adjectives and adverbs, let's know about them separately.

Adjective

An adjective is used to express the attribute of a noun or pronoun. In simple words, an adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun.

Other meanings of the adjective are: attributive words or dependent

Mainly identifying the adjective is most important because there are many such situations, where we have to find the adjective. Such as degree of comparison, for the attribute of a noun etc. Here some facts have been told in the context of identifying adjectives, with the help of which you can quickly identify them.

Rule of Adjective Identification

The meaning of an English word is to be seen by connecting it to a noun, if it is giving the correct meaning by joining, then that word is an Adjective. Like-

• good man
• small boy
• my name
• Which house
• Some people

The words in which the following words are at the end, then those words will be Adjectives

• Our
• Full
• Less
• Some
• All
• Able

The adjective is mainly used in two ways.

• Attributive Use
• Predicative Use

They express different expressions according to their usage and meaning.

Attributive Use − When an adjective is used to express the attribute of a noun it is called attributive use.

Like

I have a big house.

He is an old man

She is a beautiful girl.

Here, big, old and beautiful are expressing the characteristics of the noun. Therefore, it is attributive use

Predicative Use − When adjectives are used not before nouns but to describe the characteristic of nouns and pronouns available as subjects, then it is called predicative use. Like

Mukesh is honest.

This laptop is effective.

Sita is intelligent.

Honest, effective and intelligent is used to describe the characteristic of noun / pronoun used as subject.

Types of Adjectives

• Proper Adjective
• Adjective of Quality
• Adjective of Quantity
• Adjective of Number
• Demonstrative Adjective
• Possessive Adjective
• Distributive Adjective
• Interrogative Adjective
• Emphatic Adjective
• Exclamatory Adjective

Adverb

An adverb qualifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Examples − fast, slow, very, slowly, loudly, silently, badly, fluently, twice, yesterday, etc.

They run slow.

Ram speaks loudly.

She went there twice.

In the above sentences slow, loudly, and twice are some examples of adverbs

Types of Adverbs

• Adverbs of Time
• Adverbs of Frequency
• Adverbs of Manner
• Adverbs of Place
• Adverbs of Degree
• Adverbs of Reason
• Adverbs of Negation and Affirmation (Negative and Affirmative Adverbs)
• Interrogative Adverbs (Interrogative Adverbs)
• Relative adverbs

Difference between an adjective and adverb

Adjective	Adverb
An adjective is a word that joins or precedes or succeeds in the meaning of a noun or pronoun.	An adverb describes a verb, adjective, or any other adverb that precedes or succeeds it.
Possesses the qualification of a noun or pronoun.	Modifies a verb, adjective, preposition or conjunction.
Address what kind, which and how much.	Emphasis on how, when, where, how often, etc.
Eg: Sohan is loyal.	Eg: He proved his loyalty

Conclusion

• An adjective is used to qualify a noun or pronoun while an adverb is used to modify a verb, clause, etc.

• Adjectives elaborate who, how much, how etc. while adverbs answer how, when, where, etc

Example of Adjectives

• Mother said that the cost of a car is too high.

• His eyes were incredibly mesmerizing to the young man.

• The highly emotional actor gave an amazing performance.

• The orange is sweet.

• He became the chief secretary.

Example of Adverb

• Lata Mangeshkar sings well.

• Diwali will be celebrated tomorrow.

• He has gone up.

• Let him read a little.

• Come on rock the floor!

Exercise

Find the adjective in the given sentences

Q. The sour, pungent lemon caught on my lips.

Ans. The sour, pungent lemon caught on my lips

Q. The earnest, pleading tone makes me believe she's telling the truth.

Ans. The earnest, pleading tone makes me believe she's telling the truth.

Q. The unbelievably beautiful view was breath-taking.

Ans. The unbelievably beautiful view was breath-taking.

Q. New kittens are very small and delicate

Ans. New kittens are very small and delicate

Q. It was a long, tiring and eventful journey.

Ans. It was a long, tiring and eventful journey.

Find the adverb in the given sentences

Q. The cute dog runs fast.

Ans. The cute dog runs fast.

Q. My patient mother walks slowly

Ans. My patient mother walks slowly.

Q. The cool boy plays happily with the trucks.

Ans. The cool boy plays happily with the trucks.

FAQs

Q. What is an adjective? Give examples.

Ans. A noun or a pronoun is qualified by an adjective, which describes the characteristics of the words (qualities, defects, number, quantity, etc.). For example - big, black, tall, kind, heavy, beautiful, cowardly, crooked, one, two etc.

Q. Name 3 types of adjectives.

Ans. These are affirmative, comparative and superlative.

Q. How to use adjectives?

Ans. The word adjective can be used to qualify any noun or pronoun. Eg: He is smart.

Q. How many parts does an adverb have?

Ans. Adverbs have a total of 9 parts based on time, frequency, type, degree etc.